Programmed Lives: Fifth Stage
by Sanae
Summary: The new generation has finally taken over but they will find many obstacles on the road to become true legends.
1. Prologue

Disclaimer: I don't own Initial D, Shigeno-sensei and the Kodansha Publishing Company do.

The Kizuna Ethridge name and character belongs to fellow Initial D fanfic author SouthSideSlider.

**Programmed Lives – Fifth Stage**

_Prologue_

Mt Akagi - November 2023

The screeching sound of the tyres, the roar of several engines and the noise of their exhausts were the only things which disrupted the peace around Mt Akagi at that time of the evening because, except the sixteen sports cars which were currently racing each other, there wasn't any other traffic in the mountain pass again, being mid November and with the evenings beginning to get rather cold, most people preferred to stay indoors.

'Akito, take it easy!' the eighteen year old heard through the radio installed in his V-86.

'Come on, Seisuke, I'm just pushing it a little,' Akito said laughing as he looked at his rear view mirror to see the white RZ-1 closing the gap as it picked up more speed.

'You wanna push it? I'll give you a reason to push it,' Seisuke replied as he grazed his Mazda's front bumper against the Toyota's rear one.

'Oi!' Akito complained and, as he floored the accelerator, he heard Seisuke laugh.

'Guys,' they then heard the voice of their leader say, 'time to quit playing. Let's head back up.'

'Spoilsport,' Seisuke was heard muttering.

'Seisuke, I heard that,' Kyosuke admonished.

'I know, I wanted you to hear it,' Seisuke said cheekily and all sixteen radios cracked with the laughter of several people. Kyosuke grunted as he thought that maybe, after all, it hadn't been such a good idea to install the radios inside their cars.

A few minutes later all sixteen of them met up at the parking area near the mountain's summit, parking their cars around the yellow RZ-1 of their leader, Kyosuke Takahashi.

'Geez is cold,' Kizuna said as she snuggled herself inside her thick dark brown parka.

'Nah, wait until winter's here, then it'll be cold,' Akito said.

Kizuna looked at Akito briefly as if she wanted to say something but then, she looked at Kyosuke and remained quiet.

'Guys,' Kyosuke said, 'before we take the winter break...'

'We're taking a winter break?' Shinji, a twenty year old guy from Maebashi said.

'Well, I don't think we're going to take up any more challengers until at least February so…'

'We're not?' Akito asked sounding very disappointed, after all, as the newest addition to the team, he hadn't seen any proper challenges yet and, for this reason, he was the one most eager to prove himself.

'I don't think so, Kizuna and I will have to study for our finals,' Kyosuke replied, again exchanging a brief look with his girlfriend who, for some reason, frowned at him.

'Ah, okay,' Akito said oblivious to the exchange.

'Anyway, as I was saying,' Kyosuke continued, 'we've received a challenge from a team from Tochigi and I think we should accept it. What do you guys say?'

'Duh!' Seisuke exclaimed, 'as if you need to ask.'

'Yeah, let's do it!' Akito exclaimed enthusiastically.

'Alright, I'll call their leader,' Kyosuke said seeing that the rest of the guys were nodding their approval.

'I can't wait!' Seisuke said.

Then, taking the chance that the rest of the team were distracted by this announcement, Akito walked towards Kyosuke and said:

'Hey, I'm going now, I've got to pick Ryoko up from the ice rink.'

'Yeah, you better not be late or she'll kill you,' Seisuke commented and Akito glared at him.

'Okay, guys, same time this Saturday, we'll discuss the tactics for the challenge,' Kyosuke proposed, talking to the whole team.

After agreeing to that too, Akito and the rest of the members of the Golden Arrows walked back to their cars and, led by the panda coloured Toyota, they all drove off leaving the two Mazda's and the Nissan Z33 behind.

'I take you guys want some privacy so I'll head down too,' Seisuke said as he turned round to make his way back to his car.

'See you back home,' Kyosuke replied and Seisuke just nodded.

'You didn't tell them,' Kizuna commented as they both watched the white RZ-1 driving away.

Kyosuke looked at his girlfriend's worried face and said:

'I know, is just that…'

'They'll freak out, I know,' Kizuna finished for him, 'but sooner or later they'll have to know, after all, we need to send the email with our acceptance by the end of this month.'

'I know,' Kyosuke said now frowning too.

'I don't think that's the only problem, is it?' Kizuna asked.

'Kizuna, you know I'd love to go, it's just that…'

'I know: you don't want to leave your brother and Akito alone but, Kyosuke, this is an opportunity of a lifetime.'

'I know,' Kyosuke repeated feeling more and more torn about it.

'I don't want to put any pressure on you but, think of how much we'll learn in three whole months working for an Indy Racing League team,' Kizuna said.

'Yeah but, going to the U.S.'

'Hey, it'd be fantastic!' Kizuna exclaimed, 'we could even spend Christmas with my father's side of the family.'

Kyosuke repressed a shudder, which had nothing to do with the cold, at the prospect of meeting his girlfriend's family.

'Yeah, that'd be great,' he said trying his best to sound as enthusiastic as possible.

_To be continued…_


	2. Chapter One

**Programmed Lives – Fifth Stage**

_Chapter One_

Five days after the last gathering, all three Takahashi were at the living room in their home with Akito, Kaori and Kizuna watching the credits of a movie they had just finished watching. Then, as usual, Seisuke started browsing through the TV menu trying to decide what to watch next.

'You've got to be kidding me!' Kaori exclaimed as her boyfriend selected from the TV's memory the second movie of the "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy.

'No, I'm not,' Seisuke said looking serious as he pressed the button to start watching the movie.

'Seisuke, we've watched these films a million times!'

'Hey, this trilogy's a classic!,' Seisuke countered.

'And they're really good movies,' Kyosuke added.

'Guys, come on, we've just finished watching the first one,' Ryoko said trying to get her cousins to be reasonable.

'Precisely, we need to watch the rest now,' Seisuke replied.

'What? No way!' Kaori exclaimed.

'No one else wants to watch it, isn't that right?' Ryoko said as she sought Akito's support.

'Er…' Akito started.

'I've got an idea,' Kizuna said, 'why don't we go for a drive?'

'Yeah, let's do that,' Akito replied sounding relieved for, in his opinion, having to choose between his girlfriend and his best friends was hardly fair.

'Oh brilliant…' Kaori said starting to complain obviously not liking that idea either.

'Well, it's always better than watching some little guy trying to get rid of a ring,' Ryoko commented.

Kyosuke, visibly offended by his cousin's comment, was about to defend the masterpiece both he and his brother were fans of when they all heard the house's front door open.

'Daddy's home,' Ryoko announced and, to everyone's amusement, Akito let go of her hand as he literally jumped sideways onto the sofa, putting a good ten centimetres between his girlfriend and himself.

A few instants later, Takahashi Keisuke and his wife entered the living room:

'Hey guys,' Keisuke said after kissing his daughter on the top of her head, 'Akito.'

'Hello, sir,' the young man said and both Seisuke and Kyosuke chuckled amazed to see that, even after all these years, Akito still seemed pretty much terrified of his future father-in-law.

'Have you eaten anything yet?' Kyoko asked.

'No, but we were about to go out anyway,' Kyosuke replied.

'Why don't you eat here? I brought some take away,' Kyoko said.

'Guys?' Kyosuke asked looking around the room.

'Yes, let's eat something before we go,' Kizuna said.

A few minutes late, all six of them plus Keisuke and Kyoko were sitting at the table enjoying the different specialities Kyoko had brought with her when they heard the front door open again.

'Hey, just in time!' Keisuke said seeing his brother and sister-in-law stepping into the dining room.

'We've saved some for you,' Kyoko commented starting to get up from her chair.

'Sorry Kyoko,' Akiko said, 'this all looks delicious but, I think I'm going to pass.'

'Ah,' Kyoko said.

'Mum, are you alright?' Seisuke asked seeing how very pale his mother looked.

'Yes baby, I'm okay,' Akiko replied, 'just a bit tired, that's all.'

'Ah, okay,' Seisuke said not sounding very convinced.

'We'll just go and lay down for a bit, it's been a very long day,' Ryosuke commented.

'Mum, Dad, we're going to go out later,' Kyosuke said.

'Ah, alright, be careful, okay?' Akiko said and both of her sons nodded to that.

'See you all later,' Ryosuke said as he put his hand on his wife's back as they both walked out of the room to head upstairs. Keisuke and his wife exchanged a very brief but knowing look before Kyoko, more to break the silence that had fallen upon them than for any other reason, asked:

'So, Christmas is coming soon, have you got any plans yet?'

'Er…' Kyosuke started.

'Oh, the usual,' Ryoko said saving her cousin without being aware of doing so, 'we'll probably just go for a walk around the shopping centre and then to the movies, right?'

'Yeah, that's right,' Akito confirmed.

'We could go ice skating too,' Ryoko suggested.

'Er…' Akito said.

'Come on, you're not that bad!' Ryoko countered, 'you're actually getting really good!'

'Yeah, I'm good at falling on my butt all the time,' Akito complained then he pouted making everyone laugh.

'We'll probably go to that French restaurant, won't we?' Kaori said, talking to Seisuke.

'Of course,' Seisuke replied then, looking at his brother, he said, 'what about you Aniki?'

'Er…' Kyosuke started, 'I think we should get going, shouldn't we?'

Seisuke gave a weird look at his older brother before nodding.

'Yeah, okay.'

Thanking Kyoko for the food, they all got up and, following Kyosuke, walked out of the house and towards their cars.

'Something's wrong,' Seisuke commented to Kaori as he turned the engine of his RZ-1 on.

'Why are you saying this?' Kaori asked.

'Kizuna hasn't complained that she had to leave her car behind like she always does,' Seisuke replied as he released the handbrake so he could drive his car down the lane.

'Maybe she didn't feel like driving,' Kaori suggested.

'Yeah, right, as if that would ever happen,' Seisuke said ironically, 'I think Aniki's done something that's upset her…'

'Why don't you ask him later?' Kaori asked.

'I will, don't worry,' Seisuke replied and, with that, both fell quiet as they followed Kyosuke's car.

Onboard the Toyota V-86, which was currently leading both Mazda, after gathering enough courage and speaking as casually as possible, Akito said:

'Ryoko, my parents are probably going out next Saturday and, I think Grandpa's going to be looking after my sister.'

'Uh-huh,' Ryoko limited herself to say not really helping him at all.

'Well, I was thinking that, you know…'

'Yes?' Ryoko said and, glancing quickly at her Akito saw that the girl had a tiny smile curving her lips. He swallowed as he began to feel rather hot from the neck up.

'You know, two weeks ago, well, we couldn't…er…'

'It wasn't your fault,' she said with a very small voice.

She was right, Akito thought bitterly, that Halloween he'd planned everything very carefully so he and Ryoko could, at long last, make love for the first time, his almost ten year old sister had started feeling poorly while she was out celebrating with their parents, forcing all three of them to go back home a lot earlier than what Akito expected.

'We'll see, alright?' she finally said.

'Yeah, okay,' Akito said and, feeling very disappointed, he decided to remain silent for the rest of the journey.

Things were even quieter inside the yellow RZ-1 so, Kyosuke, Seisuke and Akito were only too happy when they finally made it all the way up Mt Akagi's summit.

'No racing tonight, okay?' Kaori said as they got themselves some warm drinks from a vending machine.

'Don't worry, we'll just take it easy,' Seisuke assured her.

'Not so easy,' Kizuna said looking a tad on the angry side, 'Kyosuke's got something to tell you.'

'Kizuna…' Kyosuke started.

'Kyosuke,' Kizuna said with a stubborn look on her face. Seeing that, the Golden Arrows leader had no other option but to say:

'Alright, guys…don't freak out, okay?'

'Right, if you say that I'll freak out for sure,' Seisuke commented dryly.

'What's wrong?' Akito asked looking almost as worried as Seisuke.

'Okay, well,' Kyosuke started, 'you guys know that I will be getting my Automotive Engineering degree next year, right?'

'Yeah,' Seisuke replied.

'Well, the thing is, Kizuna's uncle's got some good connections with a team from South Carolina…'

'From where?' Akito interrupted.

'South Carolina, that's where I come from, remember?' Kizuna explained.

'Ah right,' Akito said.

'Anyway,' Kyosuke continued, 'this team is currently competing in the Indy Racing League and…'

'Indy Racing League?' Akito asked with his eyes open as wide as they went.

'Yeah,' Kyosuke replied beginning to feel rather annoyed at Akito's constant interruptions, 'well, they've offered to both Kizuna and I the chance to do an apprenticeship with them this winter.'

'What?' Seisuke asked.

'I haven't decided anything or…'

'How long would you be gone for?' Seisuke asked keeping a remarkably neutral tone of voice.

'Three months, give or take,' Kyosuke replied.

'When would you have to leave?' Seisuke asked interrupting Akito who was about to protest.

'Beginning of next month,' Kyosuke replied.

'NO WAY!' Akito finally said, exploding.

'Hey, I haven't d…''

'You can't go now! I just made it into your team!' Akito exclaimed looking rather upset

'Akito, be quiet,' Seisuke said looking very serious, 'Aniki, I think you should go…'

'WHAT?' Akito shouted, 'ARE YOU MAD?'

'No,' Seisuke said, still keeping a calm tone of voice, 'it's an excellent opportunity for him to get a first hand experience in a racing team.'

'That's what I said,' Kizuna said happy to see she could count on her boyfriend's brother's support.

'But…' Akito started.

'Think about it, Akito,' Seisuke continued, 'you've already started your professional career and you know how hard that was and how lucky you were.'

'Yeah, I was,' Akito admitted.

'If it was so difficult for you, considering how difficult it is to find truly talented drivers, imagine how hard is going to be for Aniki to get experience as an engineer in a racing team.'

'Yeah, you're right,' Akito said to Seisuke.

'Aniki, you should definitely go,' Seisuke said.

'What about the team?' Kyosuke asked.

'We'll take care of it for you while you're gone,' a much calmer Akito replied.

'After all, like you said, there won't be any other challenges during the whole winter,' Seisuke added.

'See? I told you they would understand,' Kizuna said.

'Do you think Mum and Dad will understand too?' Kyosuke asked to his younger brother.

'Yeah, you know they've always wanted us to do whatever we want with our lives.'

'That's also true,' Kyosuke said feeling more and more ready to go.

'Hey, if you go to the US, maybe we can come and visit you,' Ryoko said, intervening in the conversation for the first time.

'That's an excellent idea, I could come with you guys too!' Kaori said, as usual agreeing with Ryoko.

'Absolutely, you all could come and stay with my family!' Kizuna said smiling happily.

'What the…' Kyosuke said startling everyone.

Akito was going to ask what was happening now when they saw a couple of cars driving up to them. Soon, one of them, a black Subaru GR, stopped next to them and, rolling down the window, its driver said:

'You're members of the Golden Arrows, aren't you?'

'Obviously,' Kyosuke replied since all three of the cars parked behind them had a pair of Golden Arrows set of stickers on them.

'Great,' the guy said, 'my name's Akai Mamoru and I'm here to challenge you for a race.'

Meanwhile, back at the Takahashi's, Akiko and Ryosuke entered the living room where Keisuke and Kyoko were sitting down watching TV.

'Hey, are you feeling better?' Kyoko asked seeing her sister in law.

'Guys,' she said as she took a seat on the couch opposite the one Kyoko and Keisuke were using, 'we need to tell you something.'

Keisuke, sensing that this was a very serious conversation, pressed the button on the remote to turn the TV off.

'What I am about to tell you must be kept strictly between the four of us, okay?' Akiko said.

'O-okay,' Kyoko stammered while Keisuke just nodded as the two got even more worried.

'The thing is,' Akiko continued, 'do you remember when we went to the gynaecologist together?' she asked looking at Kyoko.

'Oh my god!' Kyoko exclaimed, 'Are you pregnant?'

Akiko looked startled for a second then gave Kyoko a very sad smile.

'I almost wish I was,' Akiko replied then, taking a deep breath, she said, 'alas, what they've found in my uterus most definitely wasn't an embryo.'

'What's wrong then?' Keisuke asked impatiently.

'They found some cysts embedded in the wall of my uterus,' Akiko explained, 'then the doctor followed the normal procedure and performed a biopsy from one of them.'

Her voice seemed to falter for a bit then, she looked at Ryosuke silently asking him to finish the sentence for her.

'The biopsy revealed that the cysts are tumours,' he said while holding Akiko's hand.

'What?' Kyoko asked now getting as pale as Akiko.

Akiko looked at her brother and sister in law and, trying to keep her voice as firm as she could, she said:

'I've got cancer.'

_To be continued…_


	3. Chapter Two

**Programmed Lives – Fifth Stage**

_Chapter Two_

The silence that followed Akiko's announcement was surreal: Keisuke, as usual, didn't really know what to say but, again, he'd never been good at handling this kind of situations. Kyoko, on the other hand, was too distressed to be able to think straight.

Seeing her sister in law looking so upset made Akiko get up from the sofa and, walking towards Kyoko, she knelt next to her and placed her hand on top of Kyoko's.

'Sweetie…' Akiko said.

Kyoko looked at her sister in law realising that her eyes were beginning to fill with tears then, as she started crying, she dropped onto her knees and hugged Akiko as tightly as possible.

'Kyoko,' Akiko whispered as she caressed Kyoko's back, trying her best to soothe her, 'It'll be alright, you'll see.'

The younger woman pulled herself apart from Akiko and looked at her with an expression somewhere in between sad and stunned then, between sobs, she said:

'It should be me the one reassuring you, not the other way round!'

'I know,' Akiko said with a soft laugh, 'what can I do? I'm a doctor.'

As Keisuke observed the scene he was shocked to see, yet again, another proof of how extremely strong his sister in law seemed to be.

'You're going to fight it, aren't you?' Keisuke asked Akiko.

She looked at her husband and Ryosuke said:

'This is precisely the reason why we needed to tell you about it.'

'Yes,' Akiko added while both she and Kyoko got up from the floor, 'I'm lucky because we caught it at the initial stage and this should make things easier.'

'This afternoon was her first chemo session,' Ryosuke explained, 'the side effects of which shouldn't be too bad since it's been designed on her genetic profile.'

'However, and as you can see,' Akiko added pointing at her tired looking face, 'I will look a bit worn out for a while.'

'What we need from you is your cooperation to keep a sense of normality in the house,' Ryosuke said looking even more serious than usual.

'Also, as the therapy goes on, I may need to stay some nights at the hospital.'

'Akiko, Aniki,' Keisuke started, 'it's not like if you have to ask: you know we'll do anything you need us to do.'

'Yes, we know,' Ryosuke said nodding once.

'And we thank you for it,' Akiko added smiling at both Keisuke and Kyoko gratefully.

'Akiko, are you sure you don't want the kids to know? I mean,' Kyoko asked.

'Absolutely not,' Akiko replied looking resolute, 'I don't want to get them worried.'

'But, Akiko…'

'Kyoko, please, I'd like you guys to let me handle this my way, okay?' Akiko said pleadingly.

'Of course,' Kyoko replied.

'Thanks,' Akiko said, 'now, let's watch TV, okay? I really need something to distract me.'

'We could watch Discovery Channel, there's always something good on,' Ryosuke suggested.

'Yeah, lets watch that,' Akiko said as she walked back to the sofa where she sat down next to her husband, leaning her head against his shoulder as he passed an arm around her shoulders.

Keisuke turned the TV back on and, as he selected his older brother's favourite channel, he exchanged a very worried look with his wife.

Back on Mt Akagi, the two younger Takahashi brothers were currently discussing whether or not accept the challenge.

'Guys, let me do it,' Akito said.

'I don't know if we should race this guy,' Kyosuke commented.

'Why not?' Seisuke asked.

'You just don't show up and challenge people randomly,' Kyosuke pointed out.

'I don't care, I need to get some experience.'

'Okay, but keep your eyes open, alright?' Kyosuke said.

'Ha!' Seisuke laughed sarcastically, 'Aniki, it's Akito who you're talking to.'

'Yeah, that's right,' Kyosuke said with a lopsided smile.

'Seisuke,' Kaori said walking towards the three young men, pointing an accusatory finger at her boyfriend, 'you said that there would be no racing tonight.'

'Hey, I'm not going to be the one racing,' Seisuke defended himself, 'Akito is.'

'Hey! Are you going to race or what?' Mamoru shouted from inside his Subaru.

'Yes, I'll race you,' Akito said walking towards them, ignoring the way Ryoko was looking at him.

'You've got to be kidding me!' the guy said then, looking at Kyosuke, he added, 'this kid is a member of the Golden Arrows?'

Seisuke and Kyosuke stifled a chuckle then, the youngest of the Takahashi brothers said:

'I wouldn't say that, if I were you.'

'Come on,' the guy said as he and his friend got closer, 'I don't think he's old enough to have his driving license.'

Kyosuke looked at him and, instead of bragging about Akito's professional driver status, he merely said:

'You're almost right: he just got his license and he needs the practice.'

The guy seemed to think about it for a while then, he said:

'Alright, I'll do him a favour and I'll teach him a thing or two about street racing.'

Akito looked at him raising his eyebrows and was about to protest when Kyosuke replied:

'Yeah, we'll be really grateful if you can do us this favour.'

'Aniki?' Seisuke asked looking confused then, seeing the way his older brother was smiling, he decided to remain quiet. Akito just turned round and walked back to his car with Kyosuke and Seisuke following him.

'This is going to be so much fun,' Kyosuke whispered so only his brother and Akito could hear him.

'This guy must be really clueless if he hasn't recognised you,' Seisuke commented, keeping an equally low tone of voice.

'I don't care, I'm just going to race him as I usually do,' Akito said as he got into his car.

'Be careful,' he heard Ryoko say making him look at her and nod. He then turned the engine on and went to place his V-86 at the left side of the black GR.

'I'll do the countdown,' Kizuna offered as she walked in front of the two cars and, as she shouted 'go', Mamoru's Subaru and Akito's Toyota dashed just a few centimetres away from her.

'Wow,' she said as she saw the weird line the GR was taking.

'What does he think he's doing?' Seisuke laughed, not caring about the fact that the guy's friend was standing nearby.

They all saw as Akito, very prudently, decided to take the lead of the race. This way, Kyosuke thought, he would get all the way to the mountain's base in no time.

'Let's get into the cars, so we can talk to Akito by radio,' Seisuke suggested.

'Where am I supposed to sit?' Ryoko asked.

'You're with us,' Kyosuke replied.

With all three of them sitting inside the yellow Mazda, Kyosuke turned the radio on and said:

'Akito, do you copy?'

'Yeah,' they heard him reply and Kyosuke smiled listening to his friend's seemingly carefree tone of voice.

'Okay, we'll be online, just in case, okay?'

'Kyosuke, you were right, he's horrible,' Akito said, 'I'm just driving as fast as I can because I really don't trust his driving and I don't want his car anywhere near mine.'

'Where is he?' they then heard Seisuke ask.

'I don't know, I can't see him anymore but I can hear him,' Akito replied.

The young man checked his rear view mirror again, just to see that the black Subaru had completely disappeared making Akito feel really confused.

He then remembered something his father had once told him about the anxiety one tended to feel when one was unable to see the opponent. His father was right and Akito started feeling very uneasy about the whole situation for, in GP2, it was virtually impossible to be completely alone since one could almost always see the other cars either in front or behind.

Now, Akito found himself undecided about whether he should just carry on driving fast or if, maybe, it would be a better idea to slow down and see what was happening with the Subaru.

'Screw this,' he said aloud.

'What's up?' Kyosuke asked.

'I can't even hear him now,' Akito said, 'I'm getting really worried.'

'Akito, just carry on driving, I'm going to go down,' Kyosuke said.

'Okay,' Akito replied feeling much better already.

A few minutes later, and as Akito was reaching the bottom of the pass, he heard Kyosuke swearing over the radio.

'Seisuke, get down here,' Akito heard the Golden Arrows leader say.

'What's wrong?' Seisuke asked.

'The freaking nutter's crashed his car, he's not looking too good.'

Akito slammed his V-86's brakes and, turning his car around, he started driving uphill going even faster than he'd gone while going downhill.

'Kyosuke, what's wrong with him?' he asked then, not hearing an answer, he repeated, 'Kyosuke?'

Still no answer.

This made Akito floor the accelerator and, probably beating Mt Akagi's uphill speed record soon enough, he found the yellow RZ-1 as the white one was joining it.

Akito left his V-86 right in the middle of the road and, climbing out of it, he ran to where the Subaru was.

'Shit,' Akito muttered seeing that the car had crashed frontally against one of the walls this pass had, the Subaru had clearly missed a turn and it had kept driving straight on and into the wall.

Meanwhile, Seisuke and Kyosuke were helping Mamoru to get rid of his seatbelt, while Kaori went to get the first aid kit Seisuke always kept in his car.

'Hey, where does it hurt?' the future doctor asked as they had Mamoru propped up against his own car.

'Who in the heck are you?' Mamoru whimpered instead pointing at Akito, 'you were so freaking fast that I ended up pushing it too much.'

'I'm sorry,' Akito said frowning worriedly.

'You're not a newbie, are you?' Mamoru said, still ignoring Seisuke's attempts at trying to find out what was wrong with him.

'Nope,' Akito replied, 'I'm a GP2 driver.'

'Wow,' Mamoru gasped looking shocked.

'Hey, you want me to check you up or not?' Seisuke asked getting annoyed.

'What are you, a freaking doctor?' Mamoru asked.

'Almost, I'm in my third year of medical school,' Seisuke replied making Mamoru do a double take.

'I told you,' Mamoru's friend said startling everyone for no one had even noticed him getting there, 'we should have stayed away from the Golden Arrows.'

'How come you seemed so confident earlier on?' Kyosuke asked Mamoru.

'I've been training myself very hard because I really wanted to race you guys,' he replied.

'He wants to become one of you,' his friend added making Mamoru glare at him.

'Ah, I see,' Kyosuke said and, smiling at Mamoru, he said, 'I'm sorry to say this but we're not looking to increase our numbers anymore,' then, seeing how upset the guy looked, he added, 'but keep training yourself, you never know.'

'Yeah, a spot may become available in the future,' Seisuke added.

'Thanks for saying this,' Mamoru said, 'but I now know I'll never be good enough, you guys have professional racers in your team.'

'Hey, I'm the only one,' Akito hurried to say.

'Yeah, but if the rest are half as fast as you are, I'm toast,' Mamoru said looking even more miserable.

'Thanks for racing against him,' Mamoru's friend said, 'don't worry about my friend or his car, I'll take care of everything.'

'What, I…' Seisuke started.

'He's right, sorry for the trouble,' Mamoru said as his friend took Seisuke's place next to him.

Kyosuke, seeing that they were no longer needed nor wanted, he nodded and, speaking to his brother and to his best friend, he ordered:

'Okay guys, let's go.'

Very reluctantly, both Seisuke and Akito started walking towards their cars with their respective girlfriends following them.

'Don't give up racing, okay?' Kyosuke added talking to Mamoru and before heading back to his car too then, as he and Kizuna climbed into it, the young woman bent towards Kyosuke and said:

'You're such a great guy.'

She then took his face between her hands and kissed him full on his mouth.

'I can live with that,' Kyosuke said smiling in a very smug way making Kizuna laugh softly.

Half an hour later, and after dropping Ryoko at the Takahashi's, Akito drove all the way back home where he found yet another Subaru parked outside his house.

This time though, it was a very old, but excellently kept Subaru Impreza GC8, which meant that Akito's favourite person in the world, after his father and his girlfriend, of course, was paying them a visit.

'Hey Grandpa, I didn't know you'd be home tonight,' he said as he entered the Fujiwara's living room noticing that his sister wasn't there. Probably in bed, Akito thought.

'If you were home more often you'd probably know these things,' Natsuki said admonishingly.

'Er…' Akito started.

'Are you alright, son?' Takumi asked.

'Not really,' Akito replied honestly.

'What's wrong?' Natsuki asked.

'Er…I don't know how to say this…'

'Did you do anything to the car?' Takumi asked.

'Of course not!' Akito exclaimed.

'Then what's wrong?' Bunta asked.

'Er…' Akito started again, biting his lower lip, 'I…kind of made someone else crash,' he added as fast as he could.

'WHAT?' Natsuki exclaimed.

'It was an accident,' he pointed out rather uselessly, 'he was trying to keep up with me.'

Then, they all got startled when Bunta started laughing.

'This is not funny,' Natsuki said to her father in law.

Ignoring her, the old man got up from the sofa and, putting both of his hands on top of Akito's shoulders, he said:

'I couldn't be any prouder of you.'

_To be continued…_


	4. Chapter Three

**Programmed Lives – Fifth Stage**

_Chapter Three_

The morning after something very rare happened in the Takahashi residence: the whole family sat down together to eat their breakfast.

'This is really nice,' Kyoko said as she buttered her toast.

'Yes,' Akiko agreed, 'I wish we did this more often,' she continued and Kyoko had to refrain herself from glancing at her sister in law, just in case the kids noticed the concerned look on her face.

'Well, now that we're all here,' Kyosuke started, 'I think it's a very good time for me to tell you something.'

'Don't tell me,' Keisuke said teasingly, 'you're getting married.'

Kyosuke's startled expression made everyone at the table burst out laughing.

'No,' he said after his family had recovered, 'I think it's a bit too soon for me and Kizuna to do that, however, what I need to tell you has to do with her.'

'He wants to go to…'

'Seisuke!' Kyosuke exclaimed.

'Argh, enough of this non-sense, just tell them already,' Ryoko said.

At this point, all four adults were looking at Kyosuke very keenly.

'Okay, well, Kizuna and I have been offered the chance to go to the US and do an apprenticeship programme with an Indy Racing League team,' Kyosuke said very quickly, then looking at his brother and his cousin, he added, 'there, happy?'

'You're going where?' Kyoko asked looking first at her nephew then at Akiko, this time not bothering to hide her worry.

'The US,' Kyosuke repeated biting his lower lip, 'if you guys don't mind, that is.'

'No,' Akiko said all the sudden, 'of course we don't mind!'

'Akiko,' Keisuke started.

'I'm very happy for you!,' Akiko continued ignoring her brother in law, 'it's an excellent opportunity.'

Ryosuke looked at his wife for a few instants before nodding.

'I agree with your mother Kyosuke, I think you need to take this chance.'

'Really?' Kyosuke asked looking at both of his parents, 'can I go?'

'Absolutely yes,' Akiko said looking very resolute.

'Akiko…' Kyoko started, doing her best to support her husband. Akiko threw a quick glance at Kyoko which conveyed a clear enough message. For this reason, the younger woman decided to drop it while silently asking Keisuke to do the same.

'When are you due to leave?' Ryosuke asked his son.

'The fourth of December,' Kyosuke replied, 'I know it's a bit of a short notice.'

'No, it's okay, we've got over two weeks to prepare everything,' Akiko said.

'Are you sure it's fine that Kizuna and I go together to the US?' Kyosuke asked, just to be certain that his parents had understood the concept.

'Sweetheart,' Akiko started, 'even though you're old enough to look after yourself, we're even happier knowing that Kizuna will be there to take care of you too.'

'Well, we'll stay with her family,' Kyosuke commented.

'Even better,' Ryosuke said.

'See? I told you they'd understand too, didn't I?' Seisuke asked.

'Great, this way I get to visit you in the US!' Ryoko exclaimed happily.

'Young lady,' Kyoko said, 'no one said anything about YOU going to the US.'

'But Mum…'

'No buts, besides, you've got the ice skating championship in two months time,' Kyoko said.

Ryoko looked at her mum and, pouting, started attacking her cereals.

Kyosuke and Seisuke left shortly after to go to their lectures with Seisuke dropping Ryoko at her school and, with Ryosuke having taken his wife to the hospital so she could get yet another session of chemo, Keisuke and Kyoko were left alone in the house as they finished getting ready to go to the Motorsports Centre they managed.

'I can't believe Akiko's not going to say anything to Kyosuke,' Kyoko started.

Keisuke looked at his wife and, sighing, he said:

'I guess she doesn't want to ruin it for him, after all, it is a very good chance for Kyosuke to learn a lot about racing engineering.'

'I know that too, it's just that…'

'Kyoko, we do need to let them handle this the way they see fit,' Keisuke said and, the way he looked made Kyoko realise that he was as torn about this as she was.

'What if he finds out?'

'He'll go ballistic and will want to stay and this will upset Akiko a lot,' Keisuke said, 'which is why we have to keep it to ourselves as she and Aniki have asked us to do.'

'Darling…'

'Come on, get your bag, we've got to go or we'll be late,' Keisuke said making it clear that he didn't want to discuss the subject anymore.

Ten days later, during the last Saturday Kyosuke would spend in Japan that year, he and his brother prepared themselves for the race against the Tochigi Thunders, the team which had challenged the Golden Arrows.

'Hey, about time you two finished getting ready,' Akito said getting up from the sofa seeing his two best friends entering the Takahashi's living room.

'Yeah, we've been waiting forever,' Ryoko complained.

'Then they say we are slow,' Kizuna said looking at Ryoko who nodded her agreement.

'Don't we have to wait for Kaori?' Kyosuke asked to his brother.

'Nope,' Seisuke replied with an odd tone of voice, 'she's busy tonight so she can't come.'

'Ah, that's too bad,' Kizuna commented, 'I would have loved to see her before we're off.'

'Oh well, you'll see her when you get back,' Seisuke said.

After all sixteen members of the Golden Arrows had gathered at their usual meeting point, they drove for almost an hour then, altogether, they started climbing Momiji Lane's uphill, observing how, despite the cold temperature, there were quite a few people there.

'We've got a lot of public,' Akito commented over the radio.

'We are the Golden Arrows,' Masato replied.

'Yeah, that's right, we're famous!' Eiji agreed.

'We're famous because we're good,' Junya said.

'Guys, cut the chatter,' Kyosuke admonished his two team mates, 'we're here to show our skills not to brag about them.'

Everyone went quiet after that but Akito could swear he'd heard a noise coming from the radio speaker that had sounded a lot like Seisuke's voice saying 'spoilsport'.

'You're not going to be racing tonight, are you?' Ryoko asked.

'No,' Akito replied, 'tonight's the last time Kyosuke and Kizuna are with us before they go to the US so it's going to be them racing.'

'Great! I love it when Kizuna races,' Ryoko said.

'Me too, she's brilliant.'

'If only I drove as well as she does,' Ryoko commented sounding wishful.

'Hey, you're a great driver too!' Akito said, 'you almost beat Haruko the other day with the karts.'

Ryoko looked at Akito across the car and said:

'Akito, your sister is nine.'

'Yeah, but she's been driving karts for a lot longer than you have,' Akito pointed out.

'That's right,' Ryoko said already feeling better and making Akito smile at her.

'Anyway, er…' Akito started, 'have you thought about, you know…'

Ryoko turned a delicate shade of pink before nodding.

'We could organise something nice and romantic for Christmas,' she suggested making Akito want to scream at her that he couldn't possibly wait for so long then, calming down, Akito realised that he'd been waiting for three whole years so, three more weeks didn't sound that bad.

Finally they made it up to the top of the mountain pass where they saw a whole bunch of cars and even more people who started pointing at the two RZ-1s which lead the caravan formed by the sixteen members of the Golden Arrows.

'You're the leader, aren't you?' a guy said walking towards Kyosuke's yellow sports car as he was climbing out of it.

'Yes, I'm Takahashi Kyosuke.'

'I'm Kosugi Jiro, and I'll be racing you tonight,' the guy said.

'What's your ride?' Kyosuke asked and Jiro pointed at a mica Honda Civic Si Coupe GM5.

'It's the Mugen version,' Jiro explained.

'It makes nearly two hundred horsepower, doesn't it?' Kyosuke asked.

'The standard version does, this one is tuned to give a lot more than that,' Jiro said proudly.

'Very impressive,' Kyosuke admitted.

'Not as much as yours,' Jiro said looking at Kyosuke's RZ-1, 'that's a beautifully modified machine.'

Kyosuke just nodded to that, then Kizuna asked:

'Who am I going to race against?'

'Me,' a girl almost as tall as Kizuna said, 'my name's Shimazaki Misa.'

'I'm Kizuna Ethridge,' she said offering her hand to Misa.

'She's very cute,' Seisuke whispered to Akito and the eighteen year old silently agreed: although Misa was definitely not his kind of girl, her long dark hair with light brown highlights and great body made it obvious to Akito why Seisuke would consider her cute.

'This is going to be so hot, having those two babes racing each other,' Masato said, keeping a tone low enough so neither Kyosuke nor Kizuna could hear him. Both Akito and Seisuke nodded their agreement to that statement.

As the leaders of their respective teams, Jiro and Kyosuke decided to let the girls race first.

'Just do your stuff,' Kyosuke said bending towards Kizuna's window after the girl had climbed into her dark grey Nissan Z33.

'Don't worry, I'll make you proud,' she replied giving him a kiss. She then turned on the engine and drove her Nissan towards Misa's car, also a Nissan only hers was a red 2012 V37 Coupe.

'Nice car,' Misa said seeing Kizuna's ride.

'Thanks,' Kyosuke's girlfriend replied, 'it was my father's.'

'Mine was my brother's…'

'Let's race fair and square, okay?' Kizuna asked and Misa nodded.

After both Jiro and Kyosuke had checked with their designated officials, Jiro signalled to one of his friends to start the countdown.

'Wow, they're fast,' Shinji commented seeing the two cars dashing passed him.

'Fast and beautiful, dangerous combination,' Jiro said then, glancing at Kyosuke, he said, 'no offence…'

'None taken, I know my girlfriend,' Kyosuke replied with a proud looking smile.

Meanwhile, Kizuna had allowed Misa to take the lead of the race so she could observe her opponent's driving style and, after a few turns, the girl had already decided the strategy she needed to adopt for this race.

Misa was as fast a driver as she was but, unlike Kizuna, Misa seemed to have a bit of a problem exiting the corners: she went too wide, leaving quite a lot of space open. However, risking it now during the slowest section of the course would be useless because the V37 was a lot wider than Kizuna's roadster and, therefore, Misa would easily block any of Kizuna's attacks.

She would have to wait until they got to the sector of the course where the corners were faster, this way Kizuna's much more powerful car would have the advantage.

Patience, that was the key to this race, Kizuna thought.

She would be really sad to leave her beloved car tucked inside the Takahashi's garage for a whole three months but, she knew, it would be plain stupid to ship it all the way to South Carolina for such a short period of time.

Besides, she would have all of her uncle's cars to play with while she would be there.

Shaking her head briefly, she decided to focus back on the race, realising that if her mind had started wandering and she was still very much able to keep up with the other Nissan, it could mean only one thing:

She was going to win this race.

At long last, the two girls got to the lidless gutters' sector where, Kizuna knew, the faster, wider corners would make it easier for her to get her 350Z to overtake Misa's V37.

'It's now or never,' Kizuna said aloud as she saw the red Nissan entering a left hand side turn, leaving, as Kizuna had half hoped half expected, a lot of space in the inside, probably trying to avoid the lidless gutter.

Kizuna didn't even need to use the technique she knew Akito's father was so famous for, she just needed to drive insanely close to the very edge of the road, just switching a bit of extra weight on the right side tyres so the rear left one would just graze the tarmac.

The rest, was just a piece of cake: her roadster, being much smaller than the coupe, made it almost trouble-free through the space Misa had left her and, just giving a bit more gas, Kizuna managed to pass her.

She, of course, maintained that position all the way downhill crossing the finish line a full five seconds before Misa.

'You're fantastic,' Misa said as soon as both of them had stopped their cars.

'You're not bad either,' Kizuna offered, 'who taught you to drive?'

'My brother,' she replied, 'you?'

'My uncle,' Kizuna said smiling.

'I'd like to race you again soon,' Misa said returning the smile.

'Yeah, I'd like that too,' Kizuna started, 'unfortunately, I'm going to the US in two days' time but, I'll be back in March.'

'Let's race then,' Misa proposed.

'Deal,' Kizuna said and both girls shook their hands sealing their agreement.

Meanwhile, and as Kyosuke and the rest were celebrating Kizuna's latest victory, the oldest of the Takahashi brothers felt someone tapping his shoulder.

'Sorry to bother you,' a guy, looking to be around Akito's same age, said, 'you're from Gunma, aren't you?'

'Yeah,' Kyosuke replied.

'Do you happen to know Fujiwara Takumi's son?' the guy asked.

'I do,' Kyosuke said, 'why?'

'I'd like you to give him a message,' the teenager replied.

'You can give it to him yourself,' Kyosuke said, then, pointing at Akito who was currently talking to Seisuke, he added, 'that's him over there.'

The guy's eyes went wide with shock then, the startled expression turned into a happy one and, without exchanging a further word with Kyosuke, he walked towards where Akito was. Kyosuke decided to follow him for he was curious to see what would happen next.

'Hey, you're Fujiwara Takumi's son?'

'Yes,' Akito replied.

'Great! I can't believe I've found you!' the guy exclaimed cheerfully.

'Who are you?' Akito asked getting slightly freaked out.

'My name's Suetsugu Hiroki. My father raced against yours once and he hasn't stopped talking about him ever since.'

'What does this have anything to do with me?' Akito asked.

'I want you to race against me,' Hiroki said so boldly that he managed to leave even Seisuke speechless.

_To be continued…_


	5. Chapter Four

**Programmed Lives – Fifth Stage**

_Chapter Four_

'Can you say that again?' Akito asked still feeling pretty much astounded.

'I said I wanted to race you,' Hiroki repeated while looking at Akito eagerly.

'Now?' Akito asked and Hiroki, once more, surprised everyone by bursting out laughing.

'No, of course not,' he said, 'I want to race you in your home turf…'

Kyosuke and Seisuke looked at Hiroki thinking that the guy was probably demented or something like that and, just as Seisuke was about to ask him if he had some sort of mental problem, Akito said:

'That could be a problem.'

'Why?' Hiroki asked, his smile faltering slightly.

'Because, technically speaking, the Golden Arrows' home turf is Mt Akagi, and we never race there.'

'Mt Akagi?' Hiroki asked, 'I was under the impression that your father's home turf was Mt Akina.'

'Yes, that's true,' Akito said.

'Well, that's where I want to race you,' Hiroki said.

'Are you nuts?' Seisuke now asked.

'No, why?' Hiroki asked back, not even taking offence.

'Seisuke, it's okay,' Akito said, 'if he wants to race me in Mt Akina it's fine.'

'But Akito, that'd be wrong,' Seisuke started clearly considering that his best friend was being unfair to the poor guy.

'Great, what do you say if we meet up there next Saturday at ten pm?' Hiroki asked, ignoring Seisuke's complaints.

'Kyosuke, is it alright if I race him?' Akito asked.

'Yeah, sure,' Kyosuke replied.

'Fantastic,' Hiroki said smiling happily then, turning towards Jiro, he added, 'Jiro, you don't mind me racing him, do you?'

'Not in the slightest, we could consider it a supplementary race for this challenge,' Jiro said.

'Speaking of which,' Kyosuke said, 'shall we race?'

'Absolutely,' Jiro replied.

Then, as Jiro and Hiroki walked away from them, Seisuke, speaking to Akito, said:

'That was a horrible thing to do.'

'Why?' Akito asked.

'Racing him in Mt Akina is not fair and you know it,' Seisuke replied crossly.

'Seisuke,' Akito started, 'we haven't seen him drive, maybe he's much better than I am…'

'He's right,' Kyosuke added, 'remember that underestimating your opponent is the first step towards defeat…'

'You listen to Dad way too much,' Seisuke said still sounding upset.

'And you don't listen to him enough,' Kyosuke countered then, seeing his girlfriend's Nissan drive towards them, he walked away from both Akito and Seisuke, ignoring the latter's glare.

'Well done baby,' Kyosuke said giving Kizuna a quick hug.

'I told you I'd make you proud,' she replied, 'now it's your turn.'

'Don't worry, I won't disappoint you,' he said then he made his way to his yellow SF3Z and starting the engine, he drove towards Juro's GM5, following him then down the hill. They would drive all the way to the base where they would start their uphill battle.

'I'm going to sit in my car,' Seisuke said.

'Me too,' Akito replied.

Ten minutes later, both Akito and Seisuke heard from their representative at the start line that both RZ-1 and Civic had taken off at a staggeringly high speed.

Kyosuke, knowing that he could not be defeated after Kizuna had managed to score yet another win, decided to push his Mazda even harder than usual, also because Jiro was quite a good driver too and it took Kyosuke all of his driving skills to keep the Civic firmly behind him.

Momiji Lane's uphill was specially tricky for it started with very fast, wide corners which meant a much higher risk of being overtaken there and, if that happened, Kyosuke knew that it would be very difficult to get back in front in the second sector of the course where the slower and shaper turns made it very hard to overtake.

'This guy's quick,' Kyosuke complained seeing how stubbornly close the Civic kept itself to the RZ-1's rear bumper.

The almost twenty two year old had to repress the urge to floor the Mazda's accelerator for, Kyosuke knew he would need the extra speed as the climb became steeper so, taking a deep breath, he forced himself to calm down.

As they finally reached the end of the fastest sector, entering into the series of tight, sharp corners, Kyosuke felt something weird happening to his front tyres.

'Not now!' he exclaimed as he noticed that the tyres had lost quite a lot of grip due to the fact that Jiro had imposed a very fast rhythm throughout the whole of the first sector, probably hoping that, by pushing Kyosuke, he would end up making a mistake.

Guessing that the Civic's tyres would not be much better than the RZ-1's, Kyosuke started trying to impose his own pace and, applying the valuable knowledge he'd got from both his father and his uncle, Kyosuke, made sure he distributed the weight more or less equally on all four tyres so as to take the strain off the front ones.

The effort paid itself off and, albeit Kyosuke was beginning to sweat towards the end of the race, he managed to make it all the way to the finish line while keeping Jiro's car behind him all the time.

'Your team really deserves the fame it has,' Jiro said climbing out of his Civic, 'you can put yet another victory under your belt.'

'Yeah,' Kyosuke said tiredly, 'you surely made me work hard for this one…'

Jiro laughed softly and said:

'Thanks for coming over, it's been a lot of fun.'

'Same for us,' Kyosuke assured and, after shaking hands with Jiro, he made his way towards where the rest of his team were, thinking that he would sorely miss all of this while he'd be in the U.S.

After the traditional celebrations, and with Shinji almost crying while saying his goodbyes to the Golden Arrows leader and his girlfriend, all sixteen cars drove back to Gunma, separating as each of them made their way back to their respective homes.

At the end, the only ones left were the two RZ-1's, Kizuna's Nissan and Akito's V-86. They drove all the way to the two attached houses where the Takahashi lived.

'I'll see you tomorrow,' Akito said as he kissed Ryoko.

'Drive safely,' the girl replied and Akito nodded to that.

'Hey,' Kyosuke commented, 'I'm almost sorry that I'll miss next Saturday's race, it should be interesting seeing you race that Hiroki guy down Mt Akina.'

'We'll send you a video of the start,' Seisuke said while observing the almost concerned look Kizuna was giving at Kyosuke.

'Thanks,' Kyosuke replied then, Akito climbed back into his Toyota and, starting his engine, he waved at his friends and girlfriend before diving off.

Half an hour later, he parked his V-86 at its usual spot next to his father's car and, also as usual, he placed a hand on the top of the thirty-odd years old car's bonnet. By doing this, Akito believed he could draw a bit of his father's talent and luck out of the AE86. It was a silly superstition of his but it always made Akito feel better.

'Hey Mum, Dad,' he said entering the house's living room.

'Hey, how did it go?' Takumi asked his son as the young man dropped himself onto the couch.

'The usual,' Akito said trying to repress a smug looking smile.

'Of course,' Takumi said returning his attention to the TV programme he and his wife were watching.

'Are you hungry?' Natsuki asked Akito.

'Nah, I'm alright thanks,' he replied then, looking at his father, he said, 'Dad, listen…'

'Yeah?'

'Do you remember a guy called Suetsugu from Tochigi?' Akito asked and Takumi frowned trying to recall where he'd heard that name before then, his face lightening up in realisation, he said:

'Yes I do, he was one of my first rivals back when I was part of Project D.'

'Right,' Akito said, 'his son has challenged me to a race in Mt Akina.'

'Really?' Takumi asked raising his eyebrows in shock.

'Yep, his name's Hiroki and he insisted that he wanted to race me in Akina. Seisuke thinks I'm being unfair because I know Akina like the back of my hand but…'

'You shouldn't think so,' Takumi said, 'from what I remember, Suetsugu was quite ruthless when it came to his racing, if his son's anything like him, Mt Akina or not, you'll have to watch your back very carefully.'

'That's what I thought,' Akito commented, happy to see that his father shared his same opinion.

Natsuki sighed audibly making both Akito and Takumi look at her.

'Mum? What's wrong?' Akito asked.

'Nothing,' Natsuki started, 'it's just that now that you're on holidays from the GP2 team I thought you would take it easier.'

'Mum, I've only raced twice in a whole month. Dad used to race a lot more often than that.'

'Yes, but not after he became a professional,' Natsuki pointed out.

'It's not my fault I've become a pro sooner than he did,' Akito replied cheekily.

'Hey, watch it,' Takumi said warningly but the amused sparkle he had in his eyes told Akito that his father was proud of him for having achieved that status so early on in his life.

'Anyway, I'm still nowhere near as good as Kyosuke when it comes to street racing,' Akito continued.

'Why is that?' Natsuki asked.

'Because he's simply fantastic,' Akito replied, 'take tonight's race, for instance, the guy he raced had a very powerful car and from what Kyosuke said, he was very good too yet, Kyosuke didn't even let him take the lead, not once, in the whole race.'

'Yes, Kyosuke's very smart when it comes to his driving,' Takumi agreed, 'he reminds me a lot of his father.'

'Kyosuke's great,' Akito said then, getting a dreamy look, he added, 'I can only imagine what it must have been like seeing his father's driving live.'

'Ryosuke deserved every bit of his fame,' Takumi confirmed remembering the days when the oldest of the Rotary Brothers had been actively racing.

'Mum, I can't sleep,' Haruko said entering the living room in her pyjamas, 'you guys make too much noise.'

Akito laughed softly and getting his sister to sit next to him, he tousled her shoulder length hair and said:

'You know, I used that excuse too when I was your age.'

Natsuki and Takumi laughed at Haruko's cheeky smile.

The day after Takumi drove his family to the Takahashi residence where they had been invited to the farewell dinner for Kyosuke and Kizuna.

'Hey,' Akiko said opening the door to let the Fujiwaras in.

'Hello Akiko,' Takumi said.

'Are you alright?' Natsuki asked seeing how very tired Akiko seemed to look.

'Yeah,' the older woman said, 'I've been working a lot.'

'Ah, I see,' Natsuki replied then, she added, 'Since you're the doctor I won't tell you to take care of yourself for you already know that.'

'I do, but thanks for the concern,' Akiko said offering to Natsuki one of her kind smiles.

'Hello,' Akito said seeing Seisuke sitting on the sofa next to his cousin Ryoko.

'Hi,' the girl said getting up to kiss Akito on his cheek.

'Where's Kyosuke?'

'He's finishing his packing,' Seisuke replied.

'It's taking him forever,' Ryoko commented making Akito laugh softly at that.

'You should speak,' Seisuke said, defending his older brother, 'if you went to the US for three months we'd have to ship your entire wardrobe over there.'

Ryoko didn't say anything for she knew, as well as Akito did, that Seisuke was right.

A few minutes later, both Takahashi and Fujiwara families were sitting at the huge table in the main dinning room enjoying the meal Akiko had prepared with the help of Kyoko.

'This is delicious,' Natsuki commented after tasting a bit of her chicken curry.

'It's an Indian speciality,' Akiko said, 'I learned to make it when I lived in England.'

'You've got to give me the recipe,' Natsuki said.

'Sure,' Akiko nodded.

'So, do you have everything you need?' Takumi asked Kyosuke.

'Yep, almost, I only need to get my passport,' he said, 'by the way, Mum, where is it?'

'It's in your father's studio,' Akiko replied.

'Ah, I'll go and get it later,' Kyosuke said.

'You know,' Kizuna started, 'when we'll come back to Japan, I'm thinking of buying a new car.'

'What?' Kyosuke exclaimed, 'I thought you loved your Z33.'

'I do,' Kizuna said, 'but after last night's race I realised that I will need something a bit newer. My Nissan's getting too old.'

'Rubbish,' Takumi said, 'there's no such thing as a car that's too old as long as you keep it properly…'

'That's right,' Ryosuke agreed for his famous FC was nearing the very respectful age of thirty.

'What would you buy?' Seisuke asked.

'I'm thinking of getting an R36,' Kizuna started.

'WHAT?' Keisuke exclaimed dropping his chopsticks on his plate.

'Oh no,' Kyosuke said frowning while Seisuke, Ryosuke and Takumi bit their lower lips, probably trying to stop themselves from laughing.

'You are not going to get a GT-R anywhere near this house!' Keisuke exclaimed with a very strained sounding voice.

'W-why not?' Kizuna asked looking aghast at Keisuke's sudden display of anger.

'Look,' Keisuke started, 'it's bad enough that you drive a Nissan but, since it's a Z33 I can overlook that. But getting a GT-R it's a no-no, okay?'

'I get it: no GT-R's,' Kizuna said shaking her head and looking so scared that everyone at the table started snickering.

After they had calmed down, Kyoko steered the conversation towards a more neutral topic and asked her daughter to tell them about her upcoming ice skating championship.

'Well,' Akito said to Kyosuke and Kizuna as he and his family prepared themselves to go back home, 'do have a good trip and keep in touch, okay?'

'We will,' Kyosuke said giving Akito a one armed hug, 'try not to beat too many courses' records, okay?'

'Nah, your brother and I will leave some of them for you two,' Akito replied while Seisuke nodded to that.

A few minutes later, and as Kyosuke closed the front door, Kizuna said:

'Come on, go and get your passport so we can go to sleep, we'll have a long day tomorrow.'

'Good idea,' Kyosuke agreed and he started walking towards the corridor which led to his father's private studio.

As usual, the room where Ryosuke worked at home was spotless and extremely well organised. No surprise there, Kyosuke knew that his father was even more meticulous than he was when it came to keeping things in order.

This was probably the reason why, as Kyosuke opened one of the drawers in his father's desk, he noticed a piece of paper lying on top of it, half hidden by an office folder. He wouldn't have spared it a second look had it not been because he saw his mother's name printed on it.

Ignoring the open drawer, he picked the piece of paper up and saw that it was one of those prescription forms and, on it, next to his mother's name, Kyosuke saw the name of a drug.

He frowned trying to think of any reason why his mother would need to take any sort of medicine then he remembered that, as of recent, his mother hadn't been looking all that great.

Not thinking twice, he decided to forget about his passport and, with the prescription in his hand, he walked upstairs towards his younger brother's room.

'Hey, Seisuke, are you there?' he said knocking on the door.

'Come in,' he heard Seisuke say and Kyosuke entered the room to see that his brother was getting ready to have his bath.

'Do you know what this is?' Kyosuke said showing him the piece of paper.

'It's a prescription form,' Seisuke replied.

'I know that idiot,' Kyosuke said, 'do you know that this medicine is and what would Mum need it for?'

Seisuke picked up the prescription and looking at it his eyes got wide with shock.

'Seisuke?' Kyosuke asked seeing his younger brother's expression. Seisuke then looked up from the piece of paper to his brother.

'I really hope I'm wrong,' Seisuke started sounding incredibly worried, 'but, this…this kind of drug is given to patients who have cancer.'

_To be continued…_


	6. Chapter Five

**Programmed Lives – Fifth Stage **

_Chapter Five _

Kyosuke stared at Seisuke for what seemed like an eternity before he saw his younger brother react.

'Where are you going?' he asked seeing Seisuke turning round towards the door.

'I'm going to speak to Mum and Dad,' Seisuke replied and, without waiting for Kyosuke, he walked out of his room leaving the older brother with no other option than to follow him.

'What's wrong?' Kizuna asked, seeing Kyosuke dashing through the corridor.

'I'm not sure,' Kyosuke replied without slowing down forcing Kizuna to walk after him as her boyfriend followed his younger brother.

The three of them found Kyosuke and Seisuke's parents in the living room watching the TV with Keisuke, Kyoko and their daughter Ryoko.

'Mum, I need to ask you something,' Seisuke started and his unusually serious tone of voice made everyone look at him.

'What's wrong sweetheart?' Akiko asked.

'Why are you taking Doxilen?' Seisuke said.

Once more, the Takahashi's living room was filled by a surreal silence making Kyosuke able to hear his own heartbeat.

'Seisuke,' Ryosuke said keeping a tone of voice as neutral as his facial expression, 'what makes you think your mother's taking Doxilen?'

'This,' Seisuke said showing the prescription to his father. The double take Ryosuke did was enough for Kyosuke to realise that something was very wrong.

'Mum,' he started, 'please tell me Seisuke's mistaken and you don't have ca…'

He couldn't even finish the sentence because his mother's horrified expression was a clear enough answer.

'Oh my god,' Kyosuke said and he had to grasp the corner of the sofa for support.

'I think we'll give you some space…' Kyoko said getting up.

'NO!' Seisuke shouted angrily, 'NO ONE MOVES UNTIL WE GET SOME ANSWERS!'

'Baby…' Akiko started as she and her husband got up too. Seisuke took a step backwards looking at his parents with an enraged expression on his otherwise handsome face. Kyosuke walked towards his younger brother and the two young men stood united facing their parents.

'Akiko…' Ryosuke said looking at his wife who, looking sicker than ever, just nodded.

'I've got cancer,' Akiko said with a voice just over a whisper.

'What?' they all heard Ryoko whimper and, looking at her, they saw that the poor eighteen year old looked utterly bewildered.

'Why didn't you tell us?' Kyosuke asked choosing to ignore his cousin.

'I…' Akiko started.

'Did you think we couldn't cope with it?' Seisuke added.

'No…'

'Then why?' Kyosuke he said with a desperate tone of voice.

Akiko looked at her two boys then at her husband and, collapsing again on the sofa, she put her hands on her face and started crying.

'Akiko,' Ryosuke whispered sitting back next to her and passing an arm around her shoulders. Both Kyosuke and Seisuke rushed towards their parents and crouched next to them.

Akiko looked up and, with her face drenched with her tears, she sobbed:

'I couldn't tell you…because I didn't want to have to face this…'

'What?' Seisuke asked his anger quickly turning into confusion.

'Boys,' Ryosuke said, 'your mother and I decided not to tell you because, for as long as you didn't know, we could pretend everything was fine.'

'I couldn't face seeing you getting this much worried,' Akiko added with her voice broken because of her crying.

'Mum, don't you think we'd get even more worried if we found out like this?' Seisuke asked and Akiko bit her lower lip to make it stop quivering.

'Holy crap,' Kyosuke said springing up so suddenly that he almost made Seisuke fall on his butt, 'you were going to let me go to the US without telling me, weren't you?'

Ryosuke and Akiko glanced at him looking horror-struck.

'This is freaking brilliant,' Kyosuke said sarcastically as he passed a hand through his bleached spikes.

'I'm sorry,' Akiko said getting up and lifting a hand to put it on top of Kyosuke's shoulder, 'I didn't want to tell you because I think this trip to the US it's a very good…'

'Mum, you can't possibly think I'll go to the US now, do you?' Kyosuke asked forcing himself to ignore Kizuna's loud gasp.

'But…'

'There's no way I'm going now,' Kyosuke continued, 'I can't go. I just can't.'

'Yes you can,' Akiko said.

'NO!' Kyosuke shouted, 'I can't leave you like this!'

'Kyosuke, this is precisely the reason why your mother and I didn't want you to know.'

'I can't believe this,' Kyosuke said shaking his head as he started pacing up and down the room.

'Kyosuke…' Kizuna said walking towards her boyfriend.

'I'm sorry but you'll have to go back home by yourself,' Kyosuke said.

'No,' Kizuna said shaking her head, 'if you stay here, I'll stay too.'

'No,' Kyosuke said, 'you've go to go, you can't miss out this chance.'

'Neither can you,' Akiko said trying to make her voice sound as firm as possible.

'Mum!' Kyosuke exclaimed, 'you don't get it, do you? If anything happened to you while I'm gone I would never be able to forgive myself.'

'Kyosuke…' Akiko started.

'Mum, I'm staying,' Kyosuke interrupted her.

'Kyosuke…' Kizuna said.

'And you're going,' Kyosuke added looking at his girlfriend, 'end of the story.'

'But Kyosuke, I…' Kizuna said beginning to sound every bit as upset as Kyosuke was.

'Shit…' Seisuke whispered as he realised that Ryoko was silently weeping looking extremely distraught.

'Honey,' Akiko said walking towards her niece and, passing an arm around her shoulders, Ryoko crushed herself onto her aunt's chest and started sobbing loudly making both Akiko and Kyoko start crying again.

The next day, just after lunch, Kyosuke drove a very reluctant Kizuna to Narita spending the whole time in complete silence.

'I'm sorry about this,' Kyosuke said as they climbed out of his RZ-1 after parking it in the airport's short stay car park.

'Are you sure you don't want me to stay?' Kizuna asked as Kyosuke took her suitcase out of the car's trunk.

'Kizuna, I've told you before, there's nothing you can do right now,' Kyosuke replied.

'But…'

'Look, as you could see last night, my family's a mess and I can't leave them like this…'

'Kyosuke, I don't think you wanted to go in the first place,' Kizuna commented.

'What? Of course I did.'

'No, you didn't. Your brother and Akito had to persuade you into accepting the offer and you know it,' Kizuna said.

'Look, talking about this is useless, my mother's got cancer and I need to stay with her now. I'm really sorry I can't come with you.'

'Alright,' Kizuna said nodding.

'Kizuna, I do love you,' Kyosuke said taking the girl's hand.

'I know, I love you too,' she replied looking very much as though as she was about to burst into tears.

'I'll be counting the days till you come back,' Kyosuke said, 'but I want you to learn as much as you can, okay?'

Kizuna nodded and then, Kyosuke hugged her briefly before pulling her apart from him just enough so he could kiss her.

Half an hour later, and after having seen his girlfriend go through the airport's security, Kyosuke walked back to his car, climbing into it and, putting his hands on the steering wheel, he leant his forehead against them.

His life had suddenly turned into a royal mess and he had just sent off the only person who could make him feel better about it all.

'I'm going to miss you so much,' Kyosuke said aloud as though as Kizuna could still hear him.

When he got back home, Kyosuke saw Akito climbing out of his V-86.

'Hey, what are you doing here?' he asked getting out of his Mazda.

'I think I should be asking that to you,' Akito replied, 'weren't you supposed to be on your way to South Carolina?'

'Yeah,' Kyosuke said, 'change of plans,' he added.

'Does this have anything to do with the fact that your cousin has called me this morning begging me to come and see her?'

'Yeah, it does,' Kyosuke replied and, as shortly as possible, he explained the whole thing to his best friend.

'Wow,' Akito gasped as they made their way into the Takahashi's home, 'I'm sorry to hear that.'

'Yeah, well, she told us she's already getting treatment,' Kyosuke explained while opening the house's front door.

'That's good,' Akito said, 'hey, I think I'm going to cancel this Saturday's race.'

'What? No, don't do that, with all of this happening and Kizuna gone, I'm going to need every distraction I can get.'

Akito just nodded and, as he and Kyosuke entered the living room, a very miserable looking Seisuke waved at him and said:

'Ryoko's in her room.'

Akito nodded again and, turning round, he made his way to his girlfriend's room, leaving the two Takahashi brothers alone in the living room.

'Hey babe,' Akito said stepping into Ryoko's room, finding her lying on top of her bed.

'Hi,' she said propping herself up on her pillows. Akito sat down next to her and took her hand.

'I'm sorry about your aunt,' he commented and Ryoko just nodded, 'come here,' he said while pulling her towards him, hugging her tightly against him.

'I don't want her to die,' Ryoko said with her voice muffled by Akito's chest.

'Shush, don't say that, she's not going to die.'

'But…'

'Hey, I know, why don't we go ice skating?' Akito proposed.

'What? You hate it!' Ryoko said looking up at her boyfriend.

'Yeah, but you laugh at me loads when I fall onto my ass,' Akito commented smiling at her.

Ryoko smiled back at him and, nodding once, she pulled herself away from him, climbed out of her bed and went to get her skates' bag.

Preparing himself for the ordeal, he followed her out of her room and, after grabbing their coats and putting their shoes on, they walked towards Akito's V-86.

Shortly after, they parked the Toyota near the ice rink and, as they entered the building, they saw a guy in his early thirties walking towards them.

'Ryo-chan, I didn't know you had practice today,' the guy said looking at Ryoko in a way that Akito didn't quite like.

'I don't,' Ryoko said offering a smile to him, 'I'm just here to skate with my boyfriend…'

The guy looked at Akito and, for the tiniest moment, there was an unidentified emotion flashing through the guy's eyes.

'Hi,' he said with an obviously fake friendly tone, 'I'm Higuchi Saburo.'

Akito took the hand the guy was offering him and shook it as briefly as he could.

'Fujiwara Akito,' he said.

'He's the team's new choreographer,' Ryoko explained.

'Right…'

'If you're here to skate, do you mind if I join you?' Higuchi asked.

Yes! Akito thought but, before he could find a way to politely refuse, Ryoko said:

'Sure, you can help me teach him to stay upright for more than a few minutes.'

Higuchi laughed at that while Akito was forced to fake a smile.

'Hey,' Ryoko said as she helped Akito putting on his borrowed skates, 'you didn't take offence from what I said, did you?'

'Of course not,' Akito lied.

'Good,' she said getting up and helping Akito doing the same.

'Hey!' Higuchi shouted from the middle of the ice rink, 'are you guys ready?'

'Yes,' Ryoko replied as she stepped onto the ice while Akito was trying his best to follow her.

God, how much he hated ice skating!

Soon Ryoko started doing some simple but beautifully executed moves.

'She's great, isn't she?' Higuchi asked appearing out of nowhere, startling Akito so much that he stumbled dangerously.

'Yeah, she is,' he replied as soon as he was sure he could remain standing up.

'You really are crap at this, aren't you?' Higuchi asked dropping any diplomacy.

'Hey, you two!' Ryoko shouted from the other side of the rink, 'Come here!'

'Let's see who gets to her first,' Higuchi exclaimed and, as he started skating, he patted Akito's shoulder a bit too hard, making him lose his balance and fall onto his knees, 'Sorry!' Higuchi said glancing over his shoulder with a very nasty looking smile on his face.

'Freaking bastard,' Akito muttered as he pushed himself up and, going as fast as he could, he made his way towards Ryoko.

'Hey baby, are you alright?' Ryoko asked as soon as he finally got to where his girlfriend was.

'Yeah,' Akito replied then, taking Ryoko's hand in his, he said, 'but just in case, don't let go of me.'

'Don't worry baby, I've got you,' Ryoko reassured him with her sweetest tone of voice.

For some reason, Akito enjoyed himself enormously seeing Higuchi's furious expression.

At long last, the torture, sorry, the ice skating session finished and, by the end of it, Akito had made himself a mental note to keep an eye on that bastard.

For now, he had a very important race to think about.

_To be continued…_


	7. Chapter Six

**Programmed Lives – Fifth Stage**

_Chapter Six_

Fujiwara Takumi parked the legendary Toyota Sprinter Trueno next to his father's equally notorious Subaru Impreza and, climbing out of it, he walked towards the tofu shop his aging father refused to close down.

'Dad?' he asked stepping into the old man's working area.

'Takumi?' he heard him say from the small house's kitchen.

'Hey,' Takumi said entering the small room where he found his father preparing himself something to eat.

'What are you doing here?' Bunta asked making Takumi feel slightly unwelcome.

'Well, Akito's out for his race and Natsuki's taken Haruko to the movies.'

'Ah, so, you were all alone and decided to pay a visit to your father,' Bunta said amusedly.

'Yeah, something like that,' Takumi replied beginning to have second thoughts about this visit thinking that, maybe, it would have been a better idea to go and see his friend Itsuki.

'How nice of you,' Bunta commented and now Takumi clearly noticed that his old man was, as usual, taking the mickey out of him.

'Hey, I can go if I'm bothering you,' Takumi said getting a bit annoyed at his old man.

'Geez, son,' Bunta said dropping the wooden spoon he was using to stir whatever he was cooking, 'I swear, the older you get the less sense of humour you seem to have.'

'Yeah,' Takumi countered, 'and the older you get the weirder yours is.'

Bunta, instead of taking offence, just chuckled.

'Have you eaten anything?' he asked.

'Nope,' Takumi replied.

Soon, the two men were sitting down eating the stew Bunta had cooked for himself.

'So, Akito's got a race tonight,' Bunta said.

'Yep,' Takumi replied, 'in Mt Akina.'

'He'll win,' Bunta said making Takumi look at him with a frown.

'Dad,' he started, 'I've been meaning to ask you something for quite a while.'

'Uh-huh?'

'Why is that that you never told me you were proud of me when I raced and you keep telling Akito how good he is and how proud you are of him?'

'Are you jealous?' Bunta asked.

'Nope, just wondering,' Takumi replied honestly.

Bunta looked at his son for a while before saying:

'Well, as your father, it was my job to make sure your ego was kept on check. As your kids' grandfather, it is my prerogative to spoil them silly for it'll be your job to deal with any trouble they may cause.'

'I wish I hadn't asked,' Takumi said pouting making Bunta chuckle once more.

Meanwhile, the subject of the two men's conversation was parking his V-86 up the lane in the Takahashi's residence in Maebashi.

Akito hadn't even got to the front door's step when he saw Kyosuke opening it with Seisuke and Ryoko following him.

'Let's go,' Kyosuke said.

'Is everything alright?' Akito asked.

'Yeah, it's just that…' Seisuke replied.

'Alright, I get it,' Akito said understanding that things at the Takahashi's weren't quite back to normal yet.

Akito opened the passenger's door so Ryoko could climb into his car and, as he walked around it, he saw Kyosuke and Seisuke driving their two Mazda out of the Takahashi's enormous garage.

'Where's Kaori?' Akito asked as he fastened his four-point racing seatbelt.

'Er…' Ryoko said and, checking something onto the car's console, she whispered, 'is the radio on?'

'Nope, why?' Akito asked while turning on his car's engine so he could follow the two RZ-1s.

'Er…' Ryoko started again, 'I don't know if I should tell you this…'

'What is it?' Akito asked getting concerned.

'Well, let's say I think I know the reason why Kaori's been too busy to see Seisuke,' Ryoko said and something in her tone of voice made Akito realise that she was very angry at Seisuke's girlfriend.

'Ryoko?'

'Do you remember I went with Yayoi to the shopping centre last Thursday?' Ryoko asked.

'Yeah.'

'Well, guess who I saw enjoying a cosy coffee with pastries with a guy who was definitely not Seisuke?'

'What?' Akito said getting so shocked that he almost lost control of his Toyota.

'Yeah, I've been trying to decide whether I should tell Seisuke or not,' the girl said.

'Are you sure that…you know…well, maybe he was a friend or something.'

'Akito, you do not kiss your friends the way she was kissing him.'

'She was kissing him?' Akito said sounding scandalised.

'Yeah, how disgusting is that?' Ryoko asked finally showing how very angry she was, reminding Akito that his girlfriend was, after all, Takahashi Keisuke's kid.

'Have you told Kyosuke?' Akito asked.

'Nope, I don't know what to do.'

'I think you should tell him first and see what he thinks.'

'Alright,' Ryoko said and then, she put her hand on top of the one Akito had on the shifter.

'It's really weird though,' Akito started while enjoying the touch of her soft skin against his, 'why would Kaori cheat on Seisuke? I though she loved him.'

'Yeah, so did I. Maybe she's into older guys now, because the guy I saw her with was at least in his late twenties,' Ryoko said.

'That sucks,' Akito said then, remembering that bastard from the ice skating team, he asked, 'Ryoko, you don't mind I'm younger than you are, do you?'

Ryoko looked at him across the car and laughed softly.

'Baby, you're not even five weeks younger than I am, that hardly counts. Besides, even if I weren't in love with you, I don't like oldies so I wouldn't like being with one.'

Akito felt that he had suddenly grown a couple of inches taller and his lips curved into a silly smile that lasted all the way up to Mt Akina.

He was still grinning as he climbed out of his car and walked towards Jiro's Honda which was parked next to an orange Mitsubishi Eclipse GT DK2A which looked to be at least ten years old.

Next to the car, Akito saw Hiroki talking to the Tochigi Thunders' leader and the girl who had raced against Kizuna only a week before.

'Hey,' Hiroki said seeing Akito followed by the three Takahashi and quite a few members of the Golden Arrows.

'Hi,' Akito said offering a quick wave of his hand.

'You've got a really nice car,' Hiroki said pointing at Akito's brand new V-86.

'Yeah, so do you,' Akito said politely.

'Nah, it's really old but it's all I can afford right now,' Hiroki replied, once more, shocking everyone with his boldness, 'its powerful enough so, don't do me any favours,' the guy added as an afterthought.

'I won't,' Akito said, 'don't worry.'

'Hey,' Jiro said looking over Akito's shoulder, 'I thought you'd be gone by now.'

'Yeah, change of plans,' Kyosuke replied joining in the conversation.

'Ah, I see,' Jiro commented being sensitive enough to not point out that Kizuna wasn't there.

'What do you think if we take an hour for you guys to do a few runs before the race?' Kyosuke suggested.

'Yeah, that'd be good,' Jiro said then, talking to Misa, Hiroki and the rest of his team, he said, 'guys, what do you think?'

'It's an excellent idea,' Misa replied while Hiroki and a few guys just nodded their agreement.

'Great, let's go then…'

For an hour, everyone tried to show the best of their skills, including the two RZ-1s driven by Kyosuke and Seisuke who, just as their father and uncle had done over twenty five years before, delighted the galleries with their twin drifts.

'They're really good,' Misa said talking to Ryoko while the girl waited for Akito to come back up.

'Yeah, they are,' Ryoko agreed.

'Have you known them for a long time?' Misa asked making Ryoko look startled for a bit.

'All my life,' she finally answered, 'those two are my cousins,' she explained pointing at the two Mazdas as they prepared themselves to go down the hill once more.

'Ah, really?' Misa asked sounding a tad on the keen side.

'Yes,' Ryoko replied, 'the one driving the Toyota's my boyfriend,' she felt the need to specify, putting an extra emphasis on her last two words.

Misa laughed softly before putting her hands up and say:

'Don't mind me, no offence or anything, your boyfriend is cute enough but I'm twenty years old so he's a bit too young for me.'

'Yeah, of course,' Ryoko said shaking her head thinking that she was being a bit silly getting this jealous for no apparent reason.

'Your cousin, on the other hand…' Misa added this time definitely stunning Ryoko.

'Kyosuke?' she asked frowning, 'he's got a gi…'

'Hey,' Misa said smiling again, 'I know Kyosuke-san's got a girlfriend, I raced against her, remember? Besides, I wasn't talking about him.'

'Ah,' Ryoko gasped and was about to say that Seisuke also had a girlfriend when she remembered what she had seen in the shopping centre. For this reason, she didn't say anything about Kaori: it would serve her right if someone stole Seisuke away from her!

'Does he have a girlfriend?' Misa asked Ryoko.

'I don't know, you would have to ask him,' she replied keeping a neutral expression on her face.

'I will,' the older girl said.

At five to ten, Akito parked his V-86 next to Hiroki's Eclipse so they could start the race. He wasn't too nervous about the course for he knew it like the back of his hand, however, he remembered what his father had told him about Hiroki's old man so Akito forced himself to concentrate and drive as though as he was in one of his GP2 races.

'Can I do the countdown?' he heard Ryoko ask him.

'Sure you can,' Akito said smiling at her for he would enjoy seeing his girlfriend in her miniskirt standing in front of the two cars.

At the go, Akito and Hiroki drove past her, with Akito trying his best to keep the lead of the race so he could just drive down as quickly as possible then, right at the very first corner, he saw that Hiroki had indeed inherited his father's recklessness when, just as Akito was beginning to clear the turn, he saw through his side view mirror the front of the DK2A driving so close to the V-86 door that it freaked the heck out of poor Akito.

'Crap,' he said as he had to veer violently towards the guardrail in order to avoid a more than certain collision. By doing that, he gave Hiroki the space the guy needed to overtake him.

Akito swore again as he saw the Mitsubishi's tail getting further away from him: right, it was time to start pushing it he thought as he gave full gas to his Toyota.

'Akito, he's nuts! Be careful,' he heard Seisuke's voice through the radio.

'I know,' Akito breathed noticing that, for the first time in ages, he was actually driving at his maximum. He hadn't felt this strained while driving ever since that mad race with his father's AE86 against that old burgundy EK9 in Mt Akagi three years ago.

He had a full time job trying to keep up with the Eclipse which was driven by Hiroki at such suicidal speed that Akito started fearing for the young man's life for real. What was worse was that, in order to remain glued to the Mitsubishi, Akito had to push his V-86 as much as Hiroki was pushing his car.

'Crap,' Akito said as he had to grasp his steering wheel so tightly that his knuckles were beginning to get white. He needed to do that for he was now clearing one of the high speed corners of the course going well over one hundred and fifty kilometres an hour.

He breathed easy as he exited the turn, only to feel himself get all tensed up as he saw the Mitsubishi doing yet another suicidal move: Hiroki was putting his tyres outside the tarmac so he could get even closer to the freaking guardrail!

With Akito getting seriously worried about Hiroki's bodily integrity, he decided to just drive as fast as he could, forgetting about trying any attacks until they got to the five hairpins. Akito feared that if he got anywhere near the Eclipse before that they both would end up down the cliff.

Let's do this, Akito thought as soon as they got to the first of the hairpins. He would try what his father and grandfather had taught him to do: use the gutters to hook the tyres.

He used the first hairpin's gutter to get closer to the Mitsubishi, noticing with pleasure that Hiroki hadn't even thought of doing the same. Akito then used the second hairpin to glue the front of the Toyota to the Eclipse's rear.

Then, he saw that Hiroki, who had probably seen the whole thing through his rear view mirror, hooked his tyres too into the third hairpin's gutter.

'Fine,' Akito said finally allowing himself a tiny smile. Driving into the fourth hairpin, he saw as Hiroki hooked once again his tyres into the gutter then, just as Kyosuke had done with him over a month ago, Akito feigned going towards the inside too then, switching his line, he veered towards the outside of the corner where, his car's newer engine produced a lot more power than Hiroki's allowing Akito to drift all the way past the Eclipse.

Akito entered the fifth and final hairpin leading the race and, following his racer's instinct, he didn't go for the gutter, instead, he drifted his car using almost the entire width of the road hoping that there wouldn't be enough space for the Mitsubishi to pass him.

He then drove all the way to the final turn of the course with the GT quite literally stuck onto his car's rear bumper then, at the spot where the two lanes became three and just as Akito had predicted, Hiroki tried one last desperate attack:

As they entered the turn, he detached his car from Akito's making it go towards the inside of the corner. He then drove it, apparently aiming for the side of the V-86, probably hoping that, once more, Akito would be forced to veer away from him. This time though, Akito didn't fall for the trap and, hoping against hope, he kept his V-86 firmly onto its line.

Albeit he did feel the Eclipse's grazing somewhere in the rear section of his Toyota's side, Akito managed to cross the finish line in first position.

'You know,' Akito said as both he and Hiroki climbed out of their cars, 'it's the first time someone manages to scare me the way you've done.'

Hiroki laughed at that and said:

'My dad will be proud of me when I'll tell him this, also because, even if I've lost, unlike when he raced your father, I've managed to finish the race against you.'

'You really are shameless, aren't you?' Akito was bold enough to ask.

'Does shame make you faster?' Hiroki asked and Akito shook his head feeling even more stunned, 'then I don't need it.'

'Fair enough,' Akito replied.

'Let's go back up,' Hiroki said, 'thanks for racing me, it's been fun.'

'No problem,' Akito said thinking that even though this guy was absolutely crazy, he couldn't help but to like him, 'let's race again sometime, alright?'

'Alright, but let me train myself harder, you're still too good.'

Akito just smiled at the guy before getting back into his car and, just as he started driving back towards the summit, he saw Seisuke's white RZ-1 dash past him.

'Seisuke?' he asked through the radio.

'Fuck off you too!' he heard Seisuke shout at him.

What in the heck had happened now? Akito thought as he continued driving uphill.

_To be continued…_


	8. Chapter Seven

**Programmed Lives – Fifth Stage**

_Chapter Seven_

'Seisuke, what's wrong?' Akito asked but then he realised that, for some reason, his best friend had turned his radio off.

Akito was trying to decide what to do when he heard yet another voice through the car's radio. This time it was Kyosuke's and it sounded rather alarmed:

'Akito, follow him!'

The young man decided to obey first and ask questions later so, pulling the V-86's handbrake, he made the car turn one hundred and eighty degrees feeling grateful that Hiroki's Eclipse was driving ahead of him for, had it been otherwise, Akito would have never had enough space to do the manoeuvre.

'Kyosuke, is Ryoko with you?' he asked once he was, once more, travelling downhill.

'Yes, she is, don't worry,' Kyosuke replied.

'Ryoko, does this have anything to do with what you've told me earlier?' Akito asked as he drove as fast as he could.

'Yes,' he heard his girlfriend reply.

'I told Seisuke what she saw and he went ballistic,' Kyosuke added, 'unfortunately, we wasted too much time climbing into the car and, by the time I started following him he was already out of sight…'

'Akito, I'm really worried,' Ryoko said, 'I don't think we should have told him, goodness knows what he's going to do now…'

'Don't worry, I'll find him,' Akito said and, after that, he decided to focus all his energies on trying to catch up with the white RZ-1.

He finally saw it turning towards the road which, Akito knew, led to the motorway that went from Shibukawa to Gunma's capital city, making him think that Seisuke was probably going to Kaori's house.

Akito followed Seisuke as the youngest of the Takahashi brothers entered the motorway and was thankful to see that, at this time of the evening, the motorway was pretty much empty of other cars. This, however, allowed Seisuke to push his car even harder than he'd done up to that moment meaning that, within a few seconds, the RZ-1 was going nearly as fast as it could go.

That was bad news for Akito for, while the V-86 a much better car than the Mazda when it came to handling the mountain passes, in the motorway his car was definitely no match for the RZ-1 which, being a true sports car, could go a lot faster than the Toyota.

For this reason, all Akito could do was to make sure he didn't lose sight of Seisuke's car so he could see the moment when Seisuke would leave the motorway which, to Akito's dismay, wasn't at the exit which led to the area of Maebashi where the Takahashis lived, confirming the young man's fears that Seisuke was indeed headed towards his girlfriend's house.

A few minutes later, and just as he saw the white RZ-1 preparing itself to leave the motorway, Akito noticed through his rear view mirror the headlights of Kyosuke's car flashing at him and, for some reason, he felt relieved to see that the Golden Arrows' leader had finally caught up with them.

Then he had an idea: realising that Seisuke's car would have to slow down as it left the motorway, Akito decided to carry on at his current speed and, just as the RZ-1 was nearing the end of the exit's curved lane, Akito stuck the V-86's front to the Mazda's rear.

Akito then used the space between Seisuke's car and the lane's guardrail to pass him, drive out of the lane into a suburban road and, after checking that there was no incoming traffic on it, he stopped his car leaving it across the road thus forcing Seisuke to brake rather violently.

'ARE YOU CRAZY?' Seisuke shouted as he climbed out of his car while Akito was doing the same.

'Seisuke!' they both heard Kyosuke shout as he and Ryoko were too getting out of the yellow RZ-1.

'Guys, it's dangerous, you know, leaving the cars here,' Ryoko pointed out.

'LEAVE ME ALONE!' Seisuke shouted, 'ALL OF YOU!'

'Seisuke, be reasonable, we just need to talk to you,' Akito said walking towards Seisuke almost as if he were approaching a wild beast.

'AKITO, MOVE YOUR FUCKING CAR!' Seisuke said, now shouting so loudly that his voice was beginning to give up on him, 'I SWEAR, IF YOU DON'T MOVE IT, I'LL CRASH MINE AGAINST IT!'

'Go on,' Akito said keeping a calm tone of voice, 'it's fully insured.'

This seemed to make Seisuke react for he did a double take as though as he was unable to believe his ears.

'Guys, please…let's move all the cars,' Ryoko tried again now sounding rather scared.

'Yes, let's park them there and talk,' Kyosuke suggested pointing at the road's shoulder.

'It's your call,' Akito added still looking at Seisuke, 'I'm not moving unless you give me your word you won't drive off.'

'Fuck you,' he said speaking now with a much lower tone of voice. Nevertheless, he got back in his car and looked as if he was waiting for Akito to do the same.

The young man, deciding he could trust Seisuke, walked back to his car and climbed into it, re-starting its engine so he could drive it to the place Kyosuke had proposed. He was happy to see that Seisuke was doing the same.

Akito parked his V-86 and the Takahashi brothers parked their Mazda immediately behind the Toyota. He then climbed out of it and walked towards the driver's door of the white RZ-1 just as it was opening to let Seisuke out of the car.

'Seisuke,' Akito said making a gesture to both Kyosuke and Ryoko so they would let him handle the situation.

'I don't want to talk about it,' Seisuke said.

'Fine, I'll talk then,' Akito replied, 'look, I…'

'Akito, stop it,' Seisuke begged shaking his head as he leant against his car tiredly, 'I know, okay?'

'You know, what?' Akito asked now feeling confused.

'I've known it all along, do you think I'm stupid?'

'No, of course not,' Akito said frowning, 'but I must be because I'm not understanding a single thing.'

Seisuke looked at him and, even if it was rather dark, Akito saw that Seisuke's eyes were a lot shinier than usual and that startled him even more than when Hiroki had tried to crash his car against the V-86.

'There are so many excuses a woman can use to avoid seeing you before you start getting suspicious.'

'What are you saying?' Akito asked even if he was beginning to get the picture.

'I've thought for quite a while that Kaori was cheating on me,' Seisuke said sounding so utterly miserable that Akito felt his heart cringe rather painfully: he was definitely not used to see his most cheerful friend like this and now Akito didn't know what to do.

'I'm sorry,' he opted to say for lack of any other, more appropriate words.

Seisuke just nodded and then, looking up towards his brother, he said:

'Aniki, I'm sorry too, I shouldn't have shouted at you.'

Kyosuke took the three steps which separated him from his younger brother and, putting a hand on Seisuke's shoulder, he said:

'Hey, it's okay.'

'No it's not,' Seisuke insisted, 'I shouldn't have accused you of being jealous just because Kizuna's gone away.'

'We all talk nonsense when we're angry,' Kyosuke said with a very soft tone of voice. This made Seisuke move forward as he leant his head against his older brother's shoulder who, reacting instinctively, put his hand on the back of Seisuke's head.

Both Ryoko and Akito looked at each other feeling slightly uncomfortable watching this rare display of brotherly affection.

'Seisuke,' Kyosuke said moving his hands to put them onto his younger brother's shoulders so he could gently push him away from himself, 'it's useless to go now to Kaori's place, why don't you call her so you two can talk?'

Seisuke looked at him for a bit and shaking his head, he said:

'I don't want to talk to her.'

'But…'

'It's over,' Seisuke said, 'look, for the sake of our relationship I was prepared to ignore this suspicion of mine but, now that Ryoko has confirmed what…'

'Hey…I…' Ryoko started looking horribly guilty.

'You said you're sure of what you saw,' Seisuke said turning to face his cousin making Kyosuke remove his hands from Seisuke's shoulders.

'Yes but…'

'Then that's all I need to know. Kaori might have been my girlfriend but you, Ryoko, are my cousin, you're family, and I know that you wouldn't have told me what you saw if you weren't one hundred percent sure of it.'

'Of course not,' Ryoko said still frowning concernedly.

'Then I think I trust you more than I will ever be able to trust Kaori and, right now, I don't really want to hear her side of the story. I don't care anymore.'

'Seisuke,' Akito started.

'Hey, let's just forget about this, alright?' Seisuke said.

'Aren't you going to speak to her at all?' Akito asked.

'Nope, if she wants to hear from me, she'll have to call me.'

'What will you do when she calls you?' Kyosuke asked.

'I'll break up with her,' Seisuke replied with a very firm tone of voice, 'she's gone way over the top and, this time, there's no way I can forgive her.'

Akito glanced at Ryoko who looked like she wanted to say something but then, probably having second thoughts, decided to remain quiet.

'What do you say if we go home, eh?' Kyosuke asked.

'Yeah, let's do that,' Seisuke replied nodding at his brother.

'Hey, Ryoko,' Akito said looking at his girlfriend, 'would you mind if I head straight back to Shibukawa?'

'No, it's alright,' Ryoko said walking towards Akito, 'I'll go home with Seisuke.'

'Okay,' Akito said bending down to kiss her cheek, 'I'll see you tomorrow.'

Ryoko nodded to that and, before anyone could say anything else, she walked towards the white RZ-1 and climbed into the passenger's seat. She then waited for all three young men to get back into their cars.

'Afraid of Kyosuke's driving?' Seisuke said as he climbed into his car.

'Nope,' Ryoko replied as she watched her boyfriend's Toyota driving away from them, doing a u-turn so he could get back into the motorway through the nearest entry.

She remained silent as Seisuke, and Kyosuke behind them, did the same thing then, once they were on their way back home, she said:

'I wanted to talk to you.'

'Ryoko, I thought I had been clear,' Seisuke said, 'I'm not angry at you.'

'I know that although I'm grateful you're not,' she said interrupting him, 'I just wanted you to know something.'

'I know, I know,' Seisuke started.

'You do?' she said sounding surprised.

'Yeah,' he replied, 'you guys are here in case I need you, but I swear, I'm alright, I'm more pissed off at her than anything else.'

'I'm happy to hear that but that wasn't what I wanted to tell you,' Ryoko said startling her cousin.

'It's not?'

'Nope,' Ryoko said and then she smiled, 'I wanted to tell you that if, in the future, you're interested in finding yourself another girlfriend, I know of someone who's rather interested.'

'You do?' Seisuke now asked looking a bit less angry.

'Yep,' Ryoko replied.

'Who?' Seisuke asked and Ryoko's smile widened seeing that her cousin seemed to be genuinely curious, then she said as casually as she could:

'Oh, is just a certain female racer who happens to find you very cute.'

'Are you talking about that Misa girl?' Seisuke asked sounding rather incredulous.

'Yes, I am,' she said.

Seisuke looked as though as he had temporarily lost the ability to speak, then he gasped:

'Wow.'

'Wow indeed,' Ryoko said laughing softly at her cousin's reaction, 'she's nice looking, isn't she?'

'Nice looking?' Seisuke exclaimed, 'she's freaking gorgeous! And she's a fine driver too.'

'There you go,' Ryoko said, 'now, I'll understand if you don't want to start going out with girls so soon after what Kaori's done to you but, give it a bit of a thought, alright?'

Seisuke nodded and replied:

'I will, don't worry.'

'Also,' Ryoko continued, 'even if she does live a bit too far away, if you dated her you wouldn't have all the problems you've had with Kaori because Misa-san is into racing too.'

Seisuke laughed softly and then he said:

'Hey, I've already said I find her attractive, you don't need to sell the idea to me.'

'Good,' Ryoko said nodding once while still grinning in a very self-satisfied manner.

'Ryoko, why are you saying all of this? I thought you liked Kaori..,' Seisuke asked all the sudden.

'I did, mainly because she wasn't racing-crazy like the rest of you, which meant we could talk about something else while you four talked about the size of your engines and the likes, that said, I cannot forgive her because she's hurt you and, like you said, you are family, she's not.'

'You know,' Seisuke started, 'when you talk like this you sound a lot like your mother.'

'Really?' she said looking at him delightedly.

'Yeah,' Seisuke said then, he frowned and asked, 'hey, now that I think of it: why are you coming home with us?'

Ryoko's smile was replaced by a confused look when she replied:

'Er…b-because, I kind of live there?'

'I know that, idiot,' Seisuke said, 'it's just that, why didn't you go with Akito…after all, it's Saturday night…'

'So?' Ryoko asked.

'Well,' Seisuke started now feeling as confused as his cousin, 'you know, I thought you two guys would go and…'

'And what?' Ryoko asked getting slightly freaked out for she was beginning to understand what her cousin was trying to say.

'Come on Ryoko, you know what I'm talking about.'

Ryoko turned her head to look through her window as she felt her face get a lot warmer than usual.

'Oh my God,' she heard her cousin say increasing his tone of voice as he spoke, 'holy crap!' he exclaimed.

'What?' Ryoko said turning sharply to look at Seisuke, only to see that her cousin was trying, very unsuccessfully, to contain his mirth.

'Please,' he started sounding short of breath due to the titanic effort he was making not to laugh out loud, 'please tell me that…'

'Seisuke,' Ryoko said warningly.

'Oh shit, this is too good!' Seisuke started, 'no wonder the guy's so freaking fast: he's just trying to vent his frustration!'

'What are you talking about?' Ryoko said beginning to take offence.

'Ryoko, you two haven't done…you know…have you?'

Ryoko, looking horribly embarrassed, shook her head no and that's all Seisuke needed to start laughing incredibly loud until he felt his cousin punching him rather hard on his arm.

'Ouch, that hurt!' Seisuke exclaimed letting one of his hands off the wheel so he could rub the spot where she'd hit him.

'Stop laughing then,' Ryoko said angrily.

'Come on Ryoko,' Seisuke started trying to adopt a more serious sounding tone of voice, 'I can't believe you two haven't done it yet: you've been going out for three years!'

'I know,' Ryoko said.

'Then, what are you waiting for? That poor guy's been waiting for a really long time!'

'I know,' she repeated.

'Then?' Seisuke insisted.

'It's just that…' Ryoko said sounding positively mortified, 'it's complicated.'

'What is?' Seisuke asked.

'You know, finding the right moment and…you know what my father is like.'

'Yeah, I know that Uncle Keisuke would kill Akito if he even suspected that you two are doing certain things but, he doesn't really need to know, does he?'

'No, not really,' Ryoko admitted, 'but, in any case, we never have the house to ourselves and I don't want it to be a rushed thing nor to go to a love hotel or worse, do it in the car...'

'Is that all you want?' Seisuke asked looking briefly at her, 'to have the house empty for a few hours?

'Yeah, it'd be a good start,' Ryoko replied.

'Alright baby cousin,' Seisuke said, 'just leave everything to me.'

'What are you going to do?' Ryoko asked this time getting definitely freaked out.

'Hey,' Seisuke said with a cheeky smile, 'trust me: I'm a doctor.'

'Not yet, you're not,' Ryoko countered and Seisuke just laughed at that, feeling grateful that his cousin had just given him quite a few reasons to, at least temporarily, go back to being his usual cheerful self.

_To be continued…_


	9. Chapter Eight

**Programmed Lives – Fifth Stage**

_Chapter Eight_

The next Sunday afternoon and using what it probably was the last snow-free day of his holidays before he'd have to go back to his GP2 testing sessions, Akito drove to the Takahashi Motorsports Centre to take one their karts for a spin.

He was parking his V-86 when he saw Kyosuke walking towards him.

'Hey,' the Golden Arrows leader said while Akito was climbing out of his car.

'How is Seisuke?' Akito asked for he'd been really worried about his other best friend.

'You can ask him yourself,' Kyosuke replied as he pointed with his head towards the garage where they kept the karts. There, crouching next to one of the small vehicles, Akito saw the youngest of the Takahashi brothers.

'Alright,' Akito said and then he and Kyosuke started walking towards Seisuke.

'Oh, hi!' Seisuke said glancing at Akito smiling in a way that made the young man frown at him.

'Are you alright?' Akito asked.

'Oh, I am,' Seisuke replied and, for no apparent reason, he chuckled.

'Are you sure?' Akito insisted while beginning to think that his best friend was slowly losing his mind and, when Seisuke looked at him for a while before bursting out laughing, Akito had confirmation of this fact.

'Oh, Akito…poor you…' Seisuke started and then, for some reason, his mirth died all the sudden.

This made Akito look at Kyosuke who apparently agreed with him in thinking that Seisuke's mood swings weren't at all normal.

'What are you doing here?' they heard Seisuke ask with a very harsh tone of voice while staring at some point beyond his friend and brother who, feeling completely puzzled by the whole thing, turned round to see who Seisuke was talking to.

'Oh crap,' Akito heard Kyosuke mutter as they saw Kaori there.

'Er…we'll just…' Akito started taking a step so he and Kyosuke could leave Seisuke alone with the girl.

'No, you two stay here!' Seisuke ordered.

'But…' Kyosuke started.

'Aniki, stay here,' Seisuke said, this time asking rather than ordering.

'Alright,' Kyosuke agreed while Akito swallowed nervously not really wanting to be there at all.

'Where were you? I've been calling you all morning,' Kaori started frowning.

'Really?' Seisuke asked with the most indifferent tone of voice he could manage.

'Y-yes,' she stuttered, 'what's wrong?' she asked.

'I don't know,' Seisuke replied flatly, 'why don't you ask your new boyfriend?'

The look of sheer horror that appeared on Kaori's face when hearing this made Akito feel even more out of place and he really wished Seisuke would allow him and Kyosuke to leave.

'W-what are…' Kaori started with a voice just over a whisper.

'Don't,' Seisuke ordered putting his hand up, almost as though as he was trying to shield himself from the girl.

'Seisuke…' she tried again.

'Look, next time you cheat on your boyfriend,' Seisuke said interrupting her, 'try to be smart enough not to do it where someone who knows you and your boyfriend might see you.'

'Sei…'

'Go, just go, alright?' Seisuke said tiredly.

Something seemed to snap within Kaori and the girl's horrified expression became an angry one:

'It's your fault if I've cheated on you!' she cried.

'WHAT?' Seisuke exclaimed unable to believe his ears.

'YES!' she shouted back, 'If you had been a bit less obsessed with your racing and had paid more attention to…'

'Kaori,' Seisuke started using such a dry tone of voice that even Akito and Kyosuke flinched hearing it, 'I think I've always been honest with you: you've always known what my priorities are, you knew that, at least for now, I will always put racing and medical school ahead of anything else and you assured me that you were okay with that.'

'Well, I'm not anymore!' Kaori said.

'No, and that's the reason why you cheated on me, isn't it?' Seisuke asked letting all his hurt and disappointment show for the shortest of moments.

'You should talk!' Kaori exclaimed, 'before we started dating you could be seen with a different girl every month, if not every week!'

Seisuke glared at her and, with an arctic tone, he said:

'I may have had a lot of girlfriends but I have never cheated on any of them, ever. Now, like I said, you're bothering me so, go away and don't call me ever again.'

He then turned round and started walking towards the shelves where the helmets and other racing equipment were kept.

'Kyosuke…' Kaori started but the older of the Takahashi brothers snorted and shaking his head he said:

'Don't even think of getting me involved. Kaori, my brother has done nothing but to try to make you as happy as possible, maybe you think he didn't do a good enough job but he did his best. Good bye.'

Then, as Kyosuke walked away from her and towards his younger brother, the girl glanced at Akito looking so desperately lost that it made him feel rather powerless.

'Sorry,' he half mumbled as he hurried to join his friends leaving her there, alone.

Meanwhile, at the Takahashi residence, Ryoko knocked on her aunt and uncle's bedroom door.

'Aunt Akiko?' she asked.

'Come in, sweetie,' she heard her aunt say.

Ryoko opened the door and saw that her aunt was half lying on her bed, with her back against its header while she worked on something with her laptop.

'Sorry, I can come back later,' she said.

'No, baby, it's alright,' Akiko said saving whatever she was doing then closing the laptop before putting it away, 'what's the matter?' she asked crossing her hands on her lap.

'Er…' Ryoko started as she felt herself get rather warm, 'I needed to talk to you about something.'

'Alright,' Akiko said pushing herself forwards so she could sit on the bed cross-legged, 'please,' she added patting a spot next to her on the bed.

Ryoko sat down and, glancing at her aunt's ashen looking face, she said:

'How are you?'

Akiko raised her eyebrows and looked startled for an instant before replying:

'Reasonably well, all things considered but, I don't think you're here to talk about my health or lack of thereof, are you?'

Ryoko, as usual, was impressed seeing how very smart her aunt was and how very difficult it was for anyone to fool her. Not even Uncle Ryosuke managed to do that and Ryoko had never met anyone as smart as her uncle.

'Ryoko?' Akiko asked.

'Yeah,' Ryoko started,' this is very embarrassing,' she then looked away getting all flustered.

'Ah, I see,' Akiko said having understood everything, 'maybe you want to wait till your mother gets back home.'

'No!' Ryoko exclaimed turning sharply to look back at her aunt, 'please auntie.'

'Sweetie, if you want to talk about sex, I think it's better that you speak to your mother,' Akiko said.

'No!' Ryoko exclaimed again, 'if I do, she'll tell Dad.'

'Ryoko, I think you should give a lot more credit to your mother,' Akiko commented sounding very serious.

'It's not that,' Ryoko explained, 'it's just that…I don't know how to say this but, I think it's easier for me to talk about this with you.'

Akiko looked at her for a bit before nodding once.

'Alright then,' she conceded, 'but, I need to know if I'm authorised to talk about this with your mother later.'

Ryoko seemed to consider this and, after a moment, she said:

'Okay.'

'Alright, what do you need to know?'

'Er…' Ryoko started then, she swallowed and whispered, 'does it really hurt all that much?'

Akiko forced herself to keep a straight face and, using her most professional-sounding tone of voice, she said:

'It depends of many things but, I think that the key to all of this is that you feel relaxed.'

'Relaxed?' Ryoko asked frowning.

'Yes, I take that you're asking me this because you and Akito are considering doing it, right?'

Ryoko nodded.

'Well, I think it's very good of you two that you've waited until you both were old enough to understand the implications that a physical relationship has.'

Ryoko nodded again.

'Also because, you two clearly love each other and, in my opinion, it is the best possible scenario for your first time.'

'Why is that?'

'Because you'll be making love rather than having sex,' Akiko replied with her usual honesty, 'which, again in my opinion, it makes all the difference in the world.'

'Yeah, I think I agree,' Ryoko said nodding.

The two of them talked for a bit longer, with Akiko stressing the importance of using some sort of protection and explaining the different existing methods then, after they finished, Ryoko thanked her aunt and left her so the woman could get back to her work.

As she closed the door behind her, Akiko felt very grateful that the girl had chosen to speak to her, rather than trying to get the information through one of her friends or, even worse, internet.

Smiling to herself, the doctor reopened her laptop and started working once more.

That same evening, after dinner and once Akito had left the Takahashi residence to go back home, Seisuke was walking through the corridor which led to the living room when he was stopped by his older brother.

'Hey, are you alright?' Kyosuke asked.

Seisuke looked at him for a short while before nodding.

'Yeah, I think I am.'

'Okay,' Kyosuke said and was about to walk away when he felt Seisuke's hand on his arm.

'Aniki,' Seisuke started, 'thanks for earlier.'

'What do you mean?' Kyosuke asked frowning confusedly.

'For not leaving me alone: I don't think I would have been anywhere near as brave if you guys hadn't been there.'

'Seisuke…'

'Aniki, I think I will always feel something for Kaori but she's not the right girl for me,' Seisuke explained.

Kyosuke remained quiet while he silently agreed with his brother.

'I'll be fine,' Seisuke continued, 'there are plenty of women in the world, I'm sure that the one who'll be right for me is somewhere out there.'

'Yeah,' Kyosuke said smiling at his younger brother, 'I don't know, maybe you'll find her in…say…Tochigi?'

Seisuke looked taken aback for an instant before, realising, he nodded:

'You've been talking to our baby cousin, haven't you?'

'Maybe,' Kyosuke replied, this time walking away from his brother without letting him speak again. Seisuke followed him and they joined the rest of their family in the living room.

'Hey, this is great,' Seisuke said seeing them all together, 'I just was waiting for the right moment to ask you something.'

Kyosuke looked at his brother feeling all confused. He then sat down next to Ryoko who looked every bit as puzzled as her oldest cousin.

'What is it sweetheart?' Akiko asked while sipping a bit of green tea.

Seisuke decided to remain standing up with his hands inside the pockets of his trousers and said:

'Okay, so, I know you guys haven't taken a break in ages, right?'

'That's right,' Ryosuke replied looking at his youngest son, trying to figure out what Seisuke's intentions were.

'So, I've been thinking that, maybe, you guys would like to go and spend a weekend somewhere, just the four of you.'

'Are you trying to get rid of us?' Keisuke asked.

'You're not planning to throw a party or something like that, are you?' Kyoko asked frowning in suspicion.

'Of course not,' Seisuke said putting his hands up, 'besides, if we needed a place to throw a party, our friend Junya has his own place so we could easily go there.'

'Ah, alright then,' Kyoko said.

'I think I agree with him,' Kyosuke added, 'you guys definitely need a break.'

Akiko looked at her two boys then, she saw the unusual way in which Ryoko seemed to be indifferent about this and, once more, she understood every single thing.

'Kyoko, could I have a quick word with you?' she said talking to her sister in law as, setting aside her half full mug, she got up from the sofa.

'Sure,' Kyoko said doing the same as she followed Akiko out of the room.

'Aniki, what's going on?' Keisuke asked to his older brother who, shrugging his broad shoulders, said:

'No idea.'

In the mean time, Kyoko entered the house's main kitchen after her sister in law and, once there, she asked:

'What's the matter?'

'Kyoko,' Akiko started as she leant against one of the kitchen's cupboards, 'I don't want you to freak out about this but, there's something I need to tell you.'

Kyoko nodded and, frowning worriedly, she prepared herself to listen to what she hoped, wouldn't be any more bad news regarding Akiko's already poor health.

'I think the boys are trying to get rid of us so we leave the house empty for Ryoko and Akito.'

'Eh?' Kyoko asked her worry turning rapidly into confusion, 'why would Ryoko and Akito need…'

She then interrupted herself as she mentally answered her own question.

'Oh no,' Kyoko said and, just as she was taking a step out of the room, Akiko put her hand on the younger woman's arm.

'Wait,' she said managing to stop Kyoko who, slowly, turned back to face her, 'think about this, Kyoko: do you prefer knowing that your daughter is making love for the first time with her boyfriend of three years who, by the way, adores her, here in the safety of our home or, would you rather have her going to a sordid love hotel or worse, doing it goodness knows where in the car?'

Kyoko seemed to consider the thing for a bit.

'Because,' Akiko added, 'they're going to do it, regardless of what you do now, they will end up doing it anyway.'

Kyoko frowned again and, sighing, she said:

'You're right.'

'Kyoko, I should tell you that Ryoko came to me earlier to ask me about sex and, even though I did tell her that she needed to talk to you too, I answered all the questions she asked me. I hope you'll forgive me for going over you like that.'

'No, no,' Kyoko said shaking her head, 'it's alright, I mean, you ARE a doctor.'

'Yes, I am,' Akiko agreed, 'but you are her mother. I don't want you to take this the wrong way but, I think you should try to make sure Ryoko knows that she can tell you anything she wants and that you won't run to Keisuke to tell him about it.'

'Is that what she thinks?' Kyoko asked looking aghast.

'Yes,' Akiko said, 'it's a good thing you and Keisuke have the kind of relationship you guys have but, Ryoko needs to know that you'll keep her private affairs, private.'

'Yes,' Kyoko nodded, 'I agree.'

'It would also be a good idea to give Keisuke a smack on the back of his head so he wakes up and realises that he lives in the twenty first century, but, again, that's just me,' Akiko said showing a bit of her infamous temper.

Kyoko just laughed at that for, once more, she agreed with her sister in law.

'Alright, let's go back and tell our husbands that we'll be very happy to go for a weekend break,' Akiko said.

'Yes, I quite fancy going back to that spa we used to go,' Kyoko added.

'How does next weekend sound?' Akiko suggested.

'Can you manage it?' Kyoko asked and Akiko knew that she wasn't asking her about her professional responsibilities.

'Yes, I should be alright with the medicines.'

Kyoko nodded to that as both women walked back to the living room the whole family shared.

_To be continued…_


	10. Chapter Nine

**Programmed Lives – Fifth Stage**

_Chapter Nine_

As he parked his V-86 next to Ryoko's little Mazda convertible, Akito was still unable to believe what would be happening in just a few hours time. He climbed out of his car to make his way to the ice rink where, he hoped, he would catch a glimpse of the last few minutes of his girlfriend's practice.

Soon enough, he walked down the rink's grandstands to go to the usual spot from which he, and quite a large group of people, watched the training sessions of Gunma prefecture's ice skating team. Unfortunately, Akito saw that the public was leaving and the girls were already packing up, this all meant that practice time was over.

'Hey,' one of them, a close friend of Ryoko's, said seeing him there.

'Hi,' Akito said, 'where's Ryoko?' he asked for he didn't see her anywhere.

'She went to speak to Higuchi-san,' the girl informed him.

'Alone?' Akito asked getting a very bad feeling all of a sudden.

'Yeah,' Ryoko's team mate said frowning, 'what's wrong?'

'Nothing,' Akito replied, 'I hope,' he muttered as he started running towards the corridor where the staff's offices were and, not really knowing which one of the numerous red doors was the choreographer's office's, he forced himself to slow down so he could start looking around.

He didn't really need to look for too long because, as he walked past the third door on his left hand side, he heard Ryoko's voice, sounding very much strained, as the girl shouted:

'Get away from me you pervert!'

Akito's brain froze in panic as he took the two steps which separated him from the door then, using every ounce of his strength, he tried to get it open.

'Ryoko!' he shouted urgently as, seeing that the door wasn't giving in, he started searching for something he could use to knock the door down. Finally, he spotted a fire extinguisher and, running towards it, he snatched it off its support and ran back to the door.

There, as he lifted the extinguisher to hit the door's knob with it, he saw, to his utter astonishment, as the thing started turning itself.

Then the door opened to reveal an enraged looking but perfectly alright Ryoko. She only looked a tiny bit dishevelled.

'What are you doing?' she asked and Akito saw her furious expression quickly going from surprised to amused making Akito feel rather foolish holding a heavy fire extinguisher up in the air.

'Er…I was…' the young man said as he slowly put the thing down on the floor.

'Trying to open the door?' Ryoko supplied no longer bothering to hide how very amused she was about it all.

'Yes,' Akito replied scratching the back of his head.

'Akito,' Ryoko said, 'this is a metallic door, what would you have done with that?' she asked pointing at the extinguisher.

Akito was about to reply to that when he heard someone moaning and, looking inside the office, the young man saw Higuchi, kneeling on the floor, holding his crotch with both hands.

'What have you done to him?' Akito asked feeling an unexpected rush of sympathy for the poor guy.

Ryoko looked at her boyfriend, then at Higuchi and back at Akito before replying:

'He tried to…you know…and I just gave him what he deserved.'

'How did you do that?' Akito managed to ask, unable to form any other, more coherent sentence. He was so shocked that he didn't even get angry at that bastard of a choreographer.

'Oh,' Ryoko said with nonchalance, 'after what happened at that party up in Mt Akagi, I asked Dad to teach me a few moves so I could defend myself.'

'Wow,' Akito gasped and, after swallowing, he looked at his girlfriend with a frown and said, 'Ryoko, remind me to never piss you off.'

She just grinned at him before turning round towards Higuchi and, smile gone, she said:

'You better pack up and go because, after I tell my father what you've tried to do, he's going to want to kill you.'

With that, she just walked away not even bothering to check whether Akito was following her or not. Before he did follow her, Akito turned to face Higuchi and, using his nastiest sounding tone of voice, Akito said:

'Good bye, scumbag.'

He then ran towards Ryoko and, taking her hand, they both picked their coats up and made their way to their cars.

'Catch me if you can,' she said smiling as she climbed into her red convertible.

Akito did a double take losing a few precious instants during which Ryoko strapped herself onto her seat, turned her car's engine on and, with a swift manoeuvre, she started driving away from him. This made Akito rush into his car starting the V-86's engine and with the speed only a professional racer could manage, he proceeded to follow his girlfriend's little Mazda in what, he believed, would be his easiest race yet.

He was wrong.

'Geez,' he said as he saw the nearly suicidal speed in which Ryoko was negotiating the corners of the road that led to the area of Maebashi where the Takahashi had their home, thankfully, not too far from the ice rink.

He couldn't help but to admire the rather aggressive way in which the little red Mazda cleared the turns and, as he observed Ryoko's driving, he realised that she had improved a lot and now the girl was probably fast enough to become a pretty good street racer, if she ever wanted to be one.

At the end, and probably because he'd been too distracted watching his girlfriend's driving style, Akito only managed to catch up with her once they were about to enter the quiet street where the Takahashi family lived. There, and using a basic but efficient technique, Akito overtook Ryoko's car getting into the Takahashi's driveway just a few metres ahead of her.

They both parked their cars in front of the huge garage's door and, as he climbed out of his V-86, Akito asked:

'Since when are you this freaking fast?'

'Self-defence isn't the only thing Dad has taught me,' Ryoko said grinning as she pressed the button on her key which activated the car's central locking system.

'Baby,' Akito said walking towards her and passing an arm around her shoulders, 'you're full of surprises.'

'You haven't seen anything yet,' Ryoko said so sexily that Akito was suddenly reminded of what laid ahead of him. Akito just smiled, choosing not to say anything that might have ruined the moment.

When they entered the house, Akito understood what she had meant by saying he hadn't seen anything yet for, as she led him into the dinning room, he found there the table set for two.

'Sit there and wait for a bit,' she said pointing to one of the chairs.

'Er…' Akito started but he was too late for Ryoko had already walked out of the room leaving him with no option but to obey and take a seat where his girlfriend had told him to sit.

A few minutes later, he saw her walking back into the room carrying a covered tray and, as she set it on the table, she removed its lid to reveal a delicious looking, traditional Japanese dinner.

'Wow,' Akito gasped feeling almost like a king.

'I've prepared some of your favourite dishes,' Ryoko said making Akito wonder when she'd had the time to cook all of that, 'I hope they're alright,' she added suddenly looking unsure of herself.

'Ryoko,' he started, 'they are better than alright, in fact, I feel very useless right now.'

'Why?' she asked him worriedly.

'Because you're doing everything, I mean, I'm…'

'Akito,' she said getting very serious, 'you've been waiting for this for almost three years, I'm just trying to make up for all the time you've been patient with me.'

Akito raised his eyebrows in shock before he said:

'You really didn't need to do all of this. In any case, I'm really grateful you have so, thank you…'

'You're welcome,' she said and then she proceeded to serve the meal and, as they started eating, she asked, 'how is it?'

'It's really good, honestly,' he replied as he helped himself to some more rice.

'Aunt Akiko's been teaching me to cook,' she said and as Akito started laughing, she asked, 'what's so funny?'

'Nothing,' Akito hurried to say, afraid she may have got upset, 'it's just that, recently, you've become a very different person…'

'What do you mean?' Ryoko asked.

'Well, you seem a lot more…I don't know…grown up,' he said.

'Grown up?' she asked with a surprised tone of voice, 'I'd hate to remind you that I am older than you.'

'Only five weeks and, like you said, it doesn't really count.'

'Fair enough,' she said.

'No, really,' he started again, 'you seem to be a lot more mature, like the way you reacted with the whole Kaori incident and, the way you've defended yourself with that bastard, not to mention the fact that your driving is amazing.'

'Is it?' Ryoko asked, her face brightening up with happiness.

'Yeah, you know, I think you could actually race with us.'

'What? You mean with the Golden Arrows?' Ryoko asked.

'Yeah,' Akito replied.

'Nah,' Ryoko said, 'you guys get too serious up there at the mountain pass. I'm not that good.'

'Yet,' Akito countered, 'but if you practiced hard you could become as good as Kizuna is.'

Ryoko shook her head and said:

'I'm not interested in that, I just wanted Dad to show me a few techniques so I could keep up with you guys when you go to your races.'

'But I always drive you to them,' Akito pointed out.

'Yeah, but I'd like to be a bit more independent,' Ryoko said then, seeing the concerned look on Akito's face, she added, 'you know, like Kizuna, she always drives her own car to the races and I want to be able to do the same, even if I don't race like she does.'

Akito considered this for a bit and then, he said:

'Alright then, I'll install one of the team's radios in your car so we can all talk, okay?'

'Sure,' she said nodding then, they spent a few minutes in silence, enjoying the meal and each other's company.

'Akito, can I tell you something?' Ryoko said after a while.

'Of course,' he replied.

'Don't tell anyone because I don't want them to laugh at me,' Ryoko started.

'Alright,' Akito said getting a bit worried.

'I'm thinking of quitting ice skating.'

'What?' Akito asked interrupting her, 'why?'

'It's just that…' she started and she licked her lips nervously.

'I thought you loved it,' Akito commented.

'Yes, I do, but…I want to go to university,' she finally said.

'So? You can still skate, can't you?' he asked and she shook her head.

'No, because I will need all my energies to study if I ever want to get the degree I want.'

'What do you want to study?' he asked thinking that if it was such a hard degree, she probably wanted to follow her uncle, aunt and cousin and become a doctor too.

'Don't laugh,' she warned.

'I won't,' Akito assured her.

'I'm going to try to get a degree in Business Administration,' she said very quickly as she stared at him, probably looking for a sign which would tell her that he was about to burst out laughing. Instead, and looking extremely impressed, he said:

'Wow, that's…that's heavy…'

'I know, I've been thinking about what I wanted to do for a while and I've decided to study that so, one day, I'll be able to help Mum and Dad with the management of the Centre.'

'That's very good of you, I'm very, very impressed.'

'You are? You don't think I'm being ridiculous for wanting something so big?' Ryoko asked still looking unsure of herself.

'Hey,' Akito started finally allowing himself to smile at her, 'you're talking to a guy whose dream is to become an F1 driver.'

'Yeah, that's true,' Ryoko agreed smiling back at him, 'but you're already half way there.'

'Nowhere near it baby,' Akito said shaking his head, 'there are loads of highly talented racers out there who want the very same thing I'm after.'

'Yeah, but you'll beat them all to it, I'm sure,' she said getting back into full fangirl mode.

'With this kind of support I haven't got any doubts,' Akito said laughing softly as he took her hand.

They finished their meal and, leaving everything on the table, they walked up to Ryoko's room still holding hands.

'Are you sure your cousins aren't going to come home?' he asked as they entered the girl's bedroom where the girl refused to turn on the light.

'Nope,' she replied, 'they'll be out all night.'

'Alright,' Akito said as he felt his heartbeat increasing at an alarmingly high rate.

'Where are you going?' he asked as, in the semi-darkness of the room, he saw her bypassing her bed and walking towards the en-suit bathroom.

'Wait here just a sec,' she replied and, after a few moments, she came back out of the room and, with a voice which betrayed that she, too, was very nervous, she said, 'we should have a shower first, don't you think?'

'Alright,' he repeated as he followed her to the bathroom and, as they stepped into it he saw that, yet again, she'd prepared something special there: a few lit candles here and there gave the whole place a really romantic look.

'This should make it easier for us to…you know…' she whispered.

Akito nodded to that and then he felt Ryoko's hands on his shoulders as she propped herself up on her tiptoes to go and kiss him.

Without not even realising how it had happened, he found himself inside the shower with its nozzle spraying warm water onto both of their bodies and soon, their first shy kisses became a whole lot more passionate until, after a while, they both stepped out of the shower dried each other with a couple of soft towels and, without stopping their kissing, they collapsed onto the bed.

They only paid attention to their rational side for a very short instant when Akito produced the condom he'd brought with him.

Ryoko giggled nervously then, realising what was about to happen, she became as serious as he was, concentrating so much that she could almost hear both of their furiously fast heartbeats.

Things were over not too long after they had started and, as Akito came back from the bathroom, walking towards the bed, he then laid onto it next to his girlfriend and he whispered sounding a little miserable:

'I'm sorry, I…'

'Hey, don't worry,' Ryoko whispered back, then, laughing softly, she added, 'I've always known you were a very fast guy.'

Akito frowned at that and was about to complain when she cupped his cheek in her hand and said:

'Hey, we've got all of our lives to get better at this, alright?'

'Yeah but…'

'I liked it,' she continued reassuring him, 'you were just as gentle as I hoped you'd be.'

'Did I hurt you a lot?' Akito asked not really feeling any less horrible.

'No,' she replied, 'it was a lot better than I thought it'd be, besides, we can try again later, can't we?'

'I don't know: I've only brought one.'

'Hey,' she said interrupting him, 'I've got a whole box in there,' she added pointing at her bedside table.

Akito laughed softly and, hugging her even more tightly, he said:

'I love you.'

'I know,' she replied smiling at him then, getting a bit more serious, she said, 'let's get some rest first, alright?'

Akito nodded and, letting Ryoko move so she could put her head on his shoulder, he hugged her again and they closed their eyes, allowing themselves to relax by listening to each other's breathing until they both fell asleep.

Suddenly, they heard a knock on the door which woke them up instantly.

'What the…' Akito muttered jumping out of the bed while his half-asleep brain started trying to find his underwear.

'Ryoko?' they heard Kyoko's voice through the door shocking Akito so much that he stopped looking for his clothes altogether.

'What is she doing in here?' Akito whispered and Ryoko just shrugged her shoulders looking every bit as stunned as he felt.

'Mum?' she asked as she put her nightie on and, after Akito had run to hide in the bathroom, the girl went to open the door.

'I'm sorry to bother you honey,' Kyoko started and, looking very worried, she said, 'your aunt has been taken to the hospital: I think they're operating her as we speak.'

_To be continued…_


	11. Chapter Ten

**Programmed Lives – Fifth Stage**

_Chapter Ten_

Ryoko remained standing there, frozen, unable to move until she heard her mother say:

'Come on, you two get dressed and come with me to the hospital.'

The girl looked at Kyoko with her eyes wide with shock and, somehow, her brain managed to register what her mother had just said.

'Mum?' Ryoko asked as she licked her lips nervously.

'Baby,' Kyoko started, looking now slightly impatient, 'I know Akito's here with you.'

Both mother and daughter heard as Akito gasped rather loudly.

'Come on,' Kyoko repeated, 'I've managed to convince your father so he would stay at the hospital with your uncle.'

'Mum, how did you…'

'Aunt Akiko told me about your plans and I agreed to them,' she explained.

'But how did she…'

'Ryoko,' Kyoko said now definitely sounding very impatient, 'let's go, we can talk about this later.'

The eighteen year old nodded and, as she closed the door again, she saw that Akito was already half dressed. This made her ran into the bathroom, take a really quick shower and, ten minutes later, both she and her boyfriend were back downstairs where they found Kyoko clearing the table where they'd had their dinner.

'Mum, I'll do that…'

'Don't be silly,' Kyoko said as she finished putting all the dirty dishes on the tray so she could take it back to the kitchen.

'Er…' Akito started.

'I take you want to drive your own car,' Kyoko interrupted him, 'so, why don't you and Ryoko get going?'

'Alright,' Akito replied. He simply could not remember a time where he'd felt any more mortified that right at that precise instant and he would have gone absolutely anywhere in order to remove himself from Kyoko's presence.

'Ryosuke insisted on having her ferried by helicopter to the clinic in Takasaki so, go there, okay?' Kyoko said.

'Alright,' Akito repeated as he went to grab his coat, hoping that Ryoko would do the same. They then walked out of the house and towards the V-86 where, without exchanging a single word, they both climbed into it and, by the time they were strapped and had the car's engine on, Akito saw his girlfriend's mother getting into the family's van starting its engine too. He then decided to let her overtake him so he could drive behind her.

'This is all my fault,' Ryoko said as they were on their way to the nearby city of Takasaki.

'What?' Akito asked.

'If I hadn't wanted to do this, Aunt Akiko wouldn't have had to travel…she wasn't fit for it but she still did it for me.'

'Ryoko,' Akito started, 'this is not your fault: you didn't know she would get worse this quickly.'

'She would have been fine if she had stayed at home,' Ryoko insisted and judging by how shaky her voice sounded, Akito guessed that the girl was on the verge of crying.

'Please, baby…' the young man said removing one hand off the steering wheel to put it on top of one of hers.

'Everything was going so well,' Ryoko said and, at that point, Akito heard as she started sobbing and, since he really didn't know what to say, he chose to remain silent.

After a twenty minute drive, they finally got to the hospital the Takahashi family had managed for a couple of generations and, as they got to the car park, Akito saw the two RZ-1's belonging to his two best friends parked there.

Akito then parked his V-86 next to the Takahashi's MPV and, climbing out of the cars, all three of them made their way to the hospital's reception area with the young man refusing to let go of his girlfriend's hand.

'What is he doing in here?' Keisuke asked as he saw his wife entering the room followed by Ryoko and Akito for, being two o'clock in the morning, the young man should have been home, not with his daughter.

'Er…' Kyoko started but was saved from having to answer by the arrival of Kyosuke and Seisuke who had just been buying a few drinks from a nearby vending machine.

'Here,' Seisuke said handing his uncle a can of coffee.

'Thanks,' Keisuke said then, looking at Akito with a very severe expression, he insisted, 'I asked a question.'

'I…' Akito started saying but he stopped seeing Ryoko taking a step towards her father.

'He was with me,' she said and Akito felt his eyes widen with the same amount of shock he could read on Keisuke's face. Looking around himself, Akito realised that everyone was every bit as stunned by Ryoko's confession as he and Keisuke were.

'What were y…' the man started but then, probably understanding the whole thing, he sprang up from his chair and, as he prepared himself to walk towards Akito, with very obvious homicidal intentions, his wife grabbed him by his arm and said:

'You, come with me, now.'

Without waiting for his reply, Kyoko started dragging her husband out of the room, leaving the two Takahashi brothers looking pretty much astounded while Ryoko frowned in worry and Akito stood there, not really knowing what to do with himself.

'What a mess,' Seisuke finally managed to say.

'I know,' Ryoko agreed.

'Hey, this is no one's fault, alright?' Kyosuke added as he sat back down on one of the room's comfy chairs.

Akito looked around himself again and, feeling incredibly embarrassed, he asked:

'Did anyone of you NOT know about what was going to happen tonight?'

Seisuke looked at his older brother and then the two of them looked at their best friend, then, with a tiny smile on his face, Seisuke said:

'I think that the only ones who DIDN'T know were Dad and Uncle Keisuke.'

'Crap, this is so…'

'Humiliating?' Kyosuke supplied somehow managing to keep a straight face.

'Yeah,' Akito agreed as he sat down next to him finding himself unable to look at Ryoko who, without saying anything, had just sat down in front of her boyfriend.

'So, how was…'

'SEISUKE!' Akito exclaimed angrily.

'Just kidding, man, take it easy,' the youngest of the Takahashi brother said then, getting serious, he said, 'I was just trying to lighten up the mood.'

'I'm sorry,' Akito said.

'Yeah, guys,' Kyosuke started, 'let's just be quiet for a while, alright?'

The other three agreed with him.

Meanwhile, and after having followed his wife to an empty room, Keisuke said:

'What's the matter with you?'

'No,' Kyoko said turning round to face her husband with her most serious expression, 'what's the matter with you?'

'What?'

'Look, I knew about what was going to happen tonight.'

'WHAT?' he repeated increasing the tone of his voice making Kyoko flinch.

'Keisuke, our daughter is no longer a little girl. She's eighteen years old and, legally speaking, she's now able to do whatever she wants, even get married if she chooses to do so.'

'WHAT?' he repeated once more making Kyoko look at him exasperatedly.

'I'm not saying that she and Akito want to get married just yet, I'm only saying that we should accept that, as they grow up, their relationship will also be that of a couple of adults.'

'But…'

'Keisuke, I didn't find out about tonight through Ryoko. It was Akiko who told me about it because our daughter went to ask her for advice, not us,' Kyoko explained, showing through her facial expression all the hurt and disappointment that her daughter's choice had caused her.

'Really?' Keisuke asked incredulously.

'Yes,' Kyoko replied, 'do you know why Ryoko didn't feel like talking about sex with me instead?' she asked.

'No,' Keisuke said shaking his head.

'Because she was afraid that I would run to you to tell you about it,' Kyoko said looking very upset, Keisuke just seemed unable to come up with anything to say and the two remained silent for a few instants.

'Am I really that bad?' Keisuke asked frowning.

'Yes,' Kyoko replied mercilessly making Keisuke feel even more miserable, 'darling, I understand how you feel about the fact that Ryoko's growing up beyond your control but we really need to make sure she trusts us enough to speak to us.'

'I know…'

'Because we've been lucky that she feels like she can speak to Akiko about this,' Kyoko continued, 'imagine what would have happened if she had turned to one of her friends instead.'

'Yeah, not good,' Keisuke conceded.

'Well, I think you should really consider accepting Akito as an intrinsic part of our daughter's life,' Kyoko said, 'after all, he loves her as much as we do and he's proved more than once how much he cares about her.'

'That's true,' Keisuke admitted.

'Then, stop making the poor boy's life a misery and allow him to be with our daughter without having to fear for his life every time he goes anywhere near her,' Kyoko said and, as she saw him nod to that, she smiled at him and added, 'she will always be a little girl for us but, we have to let her live her own life the way she wants to and with whoever she chooses.'

'Alright, I'll think about it,' Keisuke said making Kyoko frown, 'hey, I just need a bit of time to adjust to this, okay?'

Kyoko nodded and she said:

'Okay, just don't take another three years, otherwise we really risk losing Ryoko's trust forever.'

Keisuke nodded to that before sticking his hand out towards his wife and say:

'Let's go back there, I promise I won't go anywhere near Akito.'

'Good,' Kyoko said, 'also, think about this: if you hurt him you'll have to deal with an angry Takumi and, you know better than I do that that's not a very smart move.'

'Yeah, you're right,' Keisuke said and, as Kyoko took her husband's hand, they both walked out of the room and towards the waiting area where they found Ryosuke there, talking to the kids.

'Aniki,' Keisuke said seeing his older brother there, 'how's…'

Ryosuke got up from his chair and looking very serious, he said:

'They've just finished operating her and she's now in the ICU where she'll be constantly monitored while she recovers from the anaesthesia.'

'What have they done to her?' Kyoko asked tightening her grasp of her husband's hand.

Ryosuke took a deep breath as he prepared himself to explain, for the second time, what his colleagues had had to do to Akiko and, when he finished, Kyoko let go of Keisuke's hand so she could sit down.

'We don't know how she'll react to this but we need to make sure we're there for her,' Ryosuke said.

'Of course,' Kyoko agreed with a voice barely above a whisper.

'Alright, I'm now going to speak to Doctor Yamaguchi, she's been kind enough to come back from her retirement to follow the entire operation.'

'Aniki, is there anything we can do?' Keisuke asked, suddenly feeling too worried about his sister in law to worry about the young man who was sitting nearby.

Ryosuke looked at his younger brother and, shaking his head, he replied:

'Not really, you could even go home if you wanted to but, I know my family well enough to know that you'll all want to stay here.'

'Yes, that's right,' Kyosuke confirmed talking to his father on behalf of everyone else.

'Alright then,' Ryosuke said offering a curt nod to his oldest son then, he turned round and left the room. After that, they all sat down and remained quiet for a long while.

'Shouldn't you go home?' Keisuke asked talking to Akito.

'Er…'

'No, I'd like him to stay,' Ryoko said and, just to prove her point, she got up and sat next to Akito, taking his hand in hers.

'Alright,' the girl's father, unbelievably enough, said agreeing with Ryoko's choice.

'Dad…' the girl started.

'Don't worry,' Keisuke said, 'it's alright if your boyfriend stays, after all, he's as good as if he were family, isn't he?'

This shocked everyone so much that, even his own wife stared at him all sporting identical incredulous expressions.

'What? I can be a cool dad too, you know?' Keisuke said grinning in a way that, even at his forty six years of age, he still managed to look rather boyish.

'Of course you can,' Kyoko said seeing that no one seemed to want to neither agree nor disagree with her husband.

They all remained quiet once more and stayed that way for a very long time until, at around four o'clock in the morning, Kyoko woke up to find her brother in law patting her on her shoulder.

'Hey,' she heard Ryosuke say and as she looked around herself, she found that, except Seisuke, everyone else was sleeping too. She observed as Ryoko had fallen asleep on Akito's shoulder with the young man hugging her in a very protective way as he slept too. The two just looked unbelievably sweet.

'Is Akiko awake?' she whispered and Ryosuke nodded.

'Yes, I'm going to go back to her now, I just wanted you to know.'

'Okay,' Kyoko said getting up so she could stretch her tired body, 'go, I'll let the rest know.'

Ryosuke nodded again and, obeying his sister in law, he walked out of the waiting area to make his way back to the ICU preparing himself psychologically to tell Akiko about the operation she'd just been put through.

Opening the door, he found that his wife's eyes were closed again and, for a short moment, he thought that she had gone back to sleep.

'Hey,' he heard her whisper with a horribly weak sounding voice. He took the three steps which separated him from her bed and, taking a seat next to her, Ryosuke took Akiko's hand in his and smiled at her. Only then, he said:

'Good morning.'

'What time is it? she managed to ask, still whispering.

'Just gone past four,' he replied.

'What have they done?' she asked and Ryosuke wasn't surprised by this since he already knew how straight to the point his wife always was.

Ryosuke braced himself for the worse for he also knew that Akiko would not want to wait till she was a lot stronger to know the truth so, taking a deep breath, he said:

'Sweetheart, one of the polyps you had in your womb ruptured provoking intensive bleeding and that caused you to feel those horribly painful cramps.'

Akiko nodded to that.

'Doctor Yamaguchi herself was here to follow the operation,' Ryosuke continued, 'and she agreed with Doctor Miyazaki that the only option we really had was to perform a hysterectomy.'

He paused to observe what he feared it would be a very violent reaction to the news, instead, she nodded again, egging him on to continue his explanation.

'We managed to keep the ovaries intact so you won't need any kind of hormonal supplements however, your uterus has been completely removed. I'm sorry I had to make that decision for you.'

'Why?' Akiko asked managing to raise her eyebrows inquisitively.

'Akiko, I…' Ryosuke started feeling rather puzzled by his wife's apathetic reaction, 'we thought you'd be...well, we thought you'd be very depressed about this, after all, the whole point of the chemotherapy sessions was to avoid having to go this far.'

She shrugged a bit her shoulders before saying, still speaking with a very feeble voice:

'Ryosuke, I'm forty eight years old, I've already had two wonderful sons and, I was about to enter the menopause anyway, this, well, this will just speed things up a little.'

Ryosuke looked at his wife and, shaking his head, he said:

'You really are amazing.'

'So, you still love me, right?' Akiko asked, masking her concern with her usual sarcasm.

'Of course I do. Don't be silly,' Ryosuke replied lifting the IV needle-free hand so he could kiss it.

'Then, everything will be fine,' she sentenced.

The oldest of the Rotary brothers didn't have any doubt about this for, once again, his wife had shown to him what an extremely strong person she was.

_To be continued…_


	12. Chapter Eleven

**Programmed Lives – Fifth Stage **

_Chapter Eleven _

Akito ran down the stairs and, as he bypassed his home's living room's door, he heard his father calling out his name: this made him stop right where he was and go back on his own steps, poking in his head through the open door.

'Yes?' he said hoping his father wouldn't make him waste too much time for he was already running rather late.

'Are you going out?' Takumi asked as he turned the TV's volume off, making his daughter look at him rather annoyed.

'Yeah, that's alright, isn't it?' Akito replied.

Takumi looked at him for a short instant before nodding once.

'Yes, but tomorrow I want you home, your grandfather's joining us for Christmas dinner.'

'Sure, no problem,' Akito said then, turning round, he almost crashed against his mother who, laughing softly, stepped out of his way and said:

'You're going to the Takahashi's aren't you?'

'Yes,' Akito replied stealing a glance at his watch, realising he should have left ten minutes ago.

'Akiko should be discharged from the hospital very soon, shouldn't she?' Natsuki asked.

'I think so,' the eighteen year old said sounding a tad on the impatient side.

'Please send our best wishes to her, alright?

'Sure,' Akito said as he walked past her making his way to the house's hall and, as he put his shoes on, she said:

'Don't come home too late and drive carefully.'

Akito smiled as he heard those two pieces of advice for the umpteenth time in his life. The poor woman never seemed to learn.

He finally and got out of the house, he walked towards his V-86, climbed into it and turned its engine on and, half an hour later, he parked it at the usual spot in front of the Takahashi's garage. He then made his way to the house's front door.

He rang the bell and waited for someone to let him in. Akito was lucky for the person doing that was his girlfriend Ryoko.

'Hello,' she said smiling at him as he stepped into the house's hall.

'Hey, how are things?' Akito asked her after kissing his girlfriend briefly on her lips.

'Usual,' Ryoko said then, looking at him, she whispered, 'listen, would you mind a lot if we didn't go out?'

'Why?' Akito asked looking very much like he did mind if they didn't go to the cinema as they had planned.

'It's just that, you know,' Ryoko started, 'Seisuke doesn't have a girlfriend anymore and Kyosuke's missing Kizuna a lot.'

Akito looked at her beautiful face for a while before giving in to those big soft brown eyes of hers which were staring at him pleadingly.

'Alright, let's stay in.'

'Thanks,' she said kissing him again.

Then they heard someone's throat being cleared and Akito saw the always menacing figure of his future father in law as he stood near them.

'Hi,' Akito managed to gasp.

'Dad,' Ryoko started with a warning tone of voice.

'Are you ready?' they then heard the girl's mother say as she walked towards the house's hall.

'You guys are going out?' Ryoko asked looking genuinely surprised.

'Yes honey, your father's taking me out for dinner,' Kyoko said as she put a pair of high heeled shoes on.

'You?' Keisuke asked looking at Akito.

'No, we're staying in with Kyosuke and Seisuke,' Ryoko replied instead and that, for some reason, made Keisuke smile.

'Alright,' he said still staring at Akito, 'you can stay overnight if your parents agree.'

Akito's eyes widened so much that it made Keisuke laugh as both his wife and daughter stared at him with the most profound disbelief displayed on their faces.

'Hey,' Keisuke said, 'consider it my Christmas' present to you.'

The young man, still half-stunned, only managed to nod, his brain unable to come up with the simple word it would have taken him to express his gratitude.

Keisuke laughed again and, grabbing his coat, he offered his arm to his wife and said:

'Shall we go?'

Kyoko looked at her husband and, as she took his arm, her disbelieving expression turned into an adoring one.

'Yes, my darling, let's go.'

They then walked out of the house and this seemed to make Akito regain his ability to speak:

'Alright, who was that man and what has he done to your father?'

Ryoko laughed at him as she took his hand so she could drag him inside the house. He then decided to follow her to the living room where he found the two Takahashi brothers looking extremely miserable.

'Hey,' he said and only Kyosuke seemed to have the energy to lift his hand in some sort of greeting.

'Come on guys,' Ryoko said trying her best to be cheerful enough for them too, 'it's Christmas' Eve!'

'Yay,' Seisuke said with such a sarcastically flat tone that it made Akito and Ryoko look at each other.

'What are you doing in here anyway, shouldn't you go out?' Kyosuke asked to the couple.

'Nope,' Akito said, 'we've decided to stay in.'

'Why?' Seisuke asked, 'so you two can make us feel even worse with your love-love mode.'

Akito stared at him then, he looked at his girlfriend and, taking her hand once again, he made her follow him outside the room.

'Okay, I see what you mean,' he started whispering, 'we need to do something.'

'I agree,' Ryoko nodded.

'Fine, okay,' Akito said looking at his girlfriend so expectantly that she frowned at him and said:

'Ah, I see, when you say we you mean, I have to do something, don't you?'

Akito smiled sheepishly as he still seemed to be waiting for her to come up with some brilliant idea to help both Seisuke and Kyosuke.

Ryoko looked like she was thinking about something for a while and then, without even exchanging a single word with him, she ran towards the stairs and up to her room leaving Akito unsure of whether he should have followed her or not.

After a few minutes, he saw her running back down the stairs.

'So, what do we do?' he asked her.

'Leave everything to me,' she said as she started walking back to the living room, this time Akito choosing to go after her and, as they entered the room, she took the TV's remote from Kyosuke's hands.

'Hey,' he started complaining.

'Shush,' Ryoko said as she busied herself with the TV's menu, selecting the internet mode from it. She then scrolled down to the webcam function and then, pressing the enter button on the remote, she looked at Kyosuke and said:

'I hope this cheers you up.'

Soon, through the huge TV screen, all four of them saw the beautiful face of Kyosuke's half-American girlfriend.

'Kizuna,' he whispered.

'Hang on,' Ryoko said as she turned on the TV's mike, 'now you two can talk for a while.'

Then, and in order to give them some privacy, Akito, Ryoko and Seisuke left the oldest of the Takahashi brothers alone.

'Hey,' he said stepping closer to the TV screen.

'Surprised?' Kizuna asked as she smiled at him.

'Yeah,' Kyosuke replied and, even though it was rather silly of him to do so, he put his hand onto the LCD on the spot where his girlfriend's cheek was.

'How's your mother?' Kizuna asked for she had learned about the whole thing just a few days ago.

'She's getting better,' Kyosuke replied.

'I'm happy to hear that,' Kizuna commented, 'you were right about staying after all.'

'Yeah,' Kyosuke said frowning slightly, 'how are you?'

'I'm alright, we're getting ready to celebrate Christmas over here. As usual, my uncle's getting everyone involved in the whole preparation process, whether we want it or not,' she replied laughing softly.

'I'm glad to see that you're having fun,' Kyosuke said honestly.

'What are you guys doing?' Kizuna asked and Kyosuke couldn't help but to notice that she had neither confirmed nor disagreed with his statement.

'Nothing much really, I did tell you that Seisuke's split up with Kaori, didn't I?'

'Yeah,' Kizuna replied, 'I still can't believe it! I've only been gone for three weeks and look at all that's happened.'

'It feels like an eternity longer,' Kyosuke said sounding very melancholic.

'Baby…'

Meanwhile, at the Takahashi's kitchen, Ryoko looked at her other cousin and, handing him her mobile phone, she said:

'Here, this is your Christmas present from me.'

'Oh, this is awfully generous of you,' Seisuke commented sarcastically, 'you're giving me an old phone.'

'Hey,' Ryoko complained, 'it's not that old and, besides, I'm not giving it to you, I'm only giving you the number that's on the display and the chance to make a phone call with it.'

'Whose number is this?' Seisuke asked taking the mobile in his hand.

'Misa-san,' Ryoko replied.

'What?' Seisuke exclaimed.

'Come on, call her,' Ryoko ordered.

'What am I supposed to say to her?' Seisuke asked and Akito had to transform a fit of laughter into a suspicious sounding cough.

'Sorry,' he said, 'it's just that I never thought you could be this shy.'

'Shut up,' Seisuke said sounding very irritated, 'you were a virgin until five minutes ago.'

Akito was going to protest about that but Ryoko put herself in between the two of them and, with the determination she'd inherited from her father, she said:

'We're not letting you out of the kitchen until you call her.'

With this, she took Akito's hand in her and, walking out of the room, she closed the door and, turning the key, she actually locked Seisuke inside the room. Ryoko shook her head and sighed tiredly.

'What do we do?' Akito asked her.

'We wait here,' Ryoko replied, 'if I know my cousin as well as I think I do, it won't take him too long before she says yes.'

Inside the kitchen, Seisuke was still staring at the phone until, gathering the courage he needed to do so, he pressed the button which would dial the number. He then put the phone on his ear and waited for an answer.

'Hello?' he heard Misa's voice.

'Hi,' he said, 'this is Takahashi Seisuke. I don't know if you remember me.'

'Of course I do,' Seisuke had the pleasure to hear.

'Great, listen, I…'

'Where did you get this number from?' Misa asked sounding a tad concerned.

'Er…' Seisuke started considering his options till, deciding that the least pathetic of them was to tell her the truth, he admitted, 'my cousin gave it to me. I hope you don't mind.'

'No, I don't,' she said, 'so, what can I do for you?'

Seisuke's brain came up with a long list of things he wanted her to do for him but, ultimately, he settled for one:

'What are you doing for New Year's?'

'Oh…' she said and Seisuke definitely didn't like that gasp.

'You're busy, right?' he asked.

'Well, the thing is, I've been invited to this party in Tokyo.'

'Ah, alright…' he started, interrupting her at mid-sentence.

'…but you can come with me if you want to,' she said finishing off.

'Really?' Seisuke asked.

'Sure, I don't mind if you guys join us, the more the merrier, right?' Misa said and it took Seisuke's best acting abilities to mask his disappointment hearing the way she had pluralized the whole thing.

'Okay, sure,' he said.

'Right, I'll send you all the details to this number, okay?'

'Sure,' Seisuke repeated.

'Well, Merry Christmas,' she said.

'Merry Christmas to you too,' Seisuke replied and, with that, he closed the communication thinking that, at the very least, he would see that gorgeous girl again and, after all, he wasn't looking for another long term relationship so all was good.

Walking back to the kitchen's door, he knocked on it and, said:

'I've finished.'

Ryoko opened the door and smiling at him, she asked:

'So, when are you two going out?'

'Us two aren't going anywhere,' Seisuke said watching Akito's reaction closely, getting ready to beat the crap out of the younger man if he dared to laugh at him.

'Why not?' Ryoko asked frowning.

'Because she's invited all of us to a New Year's party in Tokyo.'

'That's great!' Ryoko exclaimed happily, 'I'd love to go to Tokyo for New Year's!'

'Ryoko, your dad's never going to allow us to go,' Akito started.

'Who says we're going to tell him?' Ryoko said in what sounded more like a rhetoric question than anything else then, as she walked away from the two young men, Akito whispered:

'I hate it when she does that.'

Seisuke silently agreed with his best friend as the two of them started following the girl towards the living room where all three of them found a much happier looking Kyosuke.

'So, how's Kizuna?' Ryoko asked as she sat down with Akito doing the same next to her.

'She's great,' Kyosuke replied, 'I'm thinking of going over there for a quick visit sometime next month, if Mum's fully recovered by then.'

'She will be,' Seisuke said sitting next to his brother, 'now that they've removed the source of the cancer, she should be fine.'

Kyosuke nodded to that then, eyeing his younger brother a bit more closely, he said:

'You look happy too, why?'

Seisuke explained to him about their newborn New Year's party plans and, strangely enough, Kyosuke agreed to them with not even trying to convince them of what a bad idea the whole thing was.

'So,' Akito said, 'what do we do now?'

'Karaoke?' Ryoko proposed and both Kyosuke and Seisuke made a disgusted face.

'No way,' Seisuke said shaking his head.

'Why not?' Akito asked.

'Because at the end it becomes just a chance for you to show off,' Kyosuke replied.

'Hey, it's not my fault if I've inherited my biological mother's vocal talents,' Akito said without a trace of arrogance in his voice.

'That's right,' Ryoko agreed for she was very proud of having a boyfriend who could actually sing.

Seisuke was going to reply to that when they heard Kyosuke's phone ringing.

'Hello?' he replied and then, listening to whoever was calling him, he started frowning, 'alright, I'll be there as soon as I can.'

'What's wrong Aniki?' Seisuke asked.

'That stupid moron!' Kyosuke exclaimed as he got up from the sofa making the rest of them copy him.

'Kyosuke?' Akito asked.

'Junya's got in a fight with some guys from Usui and has challenged them to a race.'

_To be continued…_


	13. Chapter Twelve

**Programmed Lives – Fifth Stage **

_Chapter Twelve _

Following Kyosuke out of the house, both Akito and Seisuke ran towards their cars. Ryoko then climbed into the passenger seat of her boyfriend's V-86, without even pausing to discuss whether she should take her own car: the girl understood that the occasion definitely didn't call for any kind of negotiations.

'Let's hope we make it on time,' Akito heard the Golden Arrows' leader through the radio channel.

'Aniki, just drive as fast as you can, we'll keep up with you,' Seisuke assured his older brother.

Then, all three cars got on the motorway, heading west towards the border with the Nagano prefecture where the National Route number eigtheen ran through the pass which connected touristy town of Karuizawa with the rest of the province.

'Akito, why are we rushing so much?' Ryoko asked when they had covered half of the distance to the Usui pass.

'We need to stop Junya,' Akito replied, surprised that he had to explain something so obvious to his girlfriend.

'I know that,' she said, 'but, won't the pass be covered by snow?'

'Probably,' Akito replied.

'Well, then they've probably closed it to all traffic, haven't they?' Ryoko said making Akito snort.

'Since when does that stop anyone from racing?' they heard Seisuke say reminding the couple that the radio was still on.

'I see…' Ryoko said, then, she seemed to think about something and she added, 'I wonder what made Junya want to race in that kind of conditions.'

'You and me both, Ryoko,' Akito said as he noticed that Kyosuke was accelerating even more. The young man had never seen the oldest of the Takahashi brothers drive like that in a non-race situation before.

By the time they made it all the way to the bottom of Mt Usui's Pass, they saw Shinji's silver Accord Coupe parked near a very familiar looking dark blue Mitsubishi X-3.

'What's Nakazato doing in here?' Seisuke asked.

'No idea,' Akito replied.

'We'll soon find out,' Kyosuke added as he stopped his RZ-1 next to the Mitsubishi with Seisuke and Akito lining up their cars next to each other at the other side of the X-3.

'Hey,' Taro said to Kyosuke as the Golden Arrows leader climbed out of his car. The guy had a very serious expression on his face.

'Where is he?' Kyosuke asked, deciding to skip any unneeded pleasantries.

'You're too late,' Taro said, 'they just took off…'

'I'm sorry Kyosuke-san,' Shinji apologised as he walked towards his team's leader, 'I tried to stop him but…'

'It's alright Shinji, this is not your fault,' Seisuke said patting the younger man on his shoulder.

'No, you're right,' Taro said speaking to Seisuke, 'it's his,' he added pointing at Akito who, after locking up his car, was walking towards his friends followed by Ryoko.

'What?' Akito exclaimed having overheard the conversation, 'I wasn't even here!' he complained.

'Precisely,' Taro said puzzling the poor Akito even more.

'Alright,' Kyosuke said looking like he was beginning to lose his patience, 'what happened exactly?'

Shinji looked at Taro before replying:

'We came here to practice and a couple of guys, seeing our stickers, stopped us as we were starting our run and they asked us if Akito was going to join us because they heard from that guy from Tochigi that Akito is with us.'

'Suetsugu?' Kyosuke asked and Shinji nodded.

'Yeah,' he continued, 'the thing is, Junya-san got pissed off because one of them said that, since he's a professional racer, Akito was the only one of us worth their time.'

'What?' Seisuke exclaimed earning himself a glare from his older brother.

'Carry on,' Kyosuke ordered.

'Well, Junya-san felt very insulted by that and started fighting with the guy who said that then, the other insulted us again by saying that Junya-san had to resort to his fists because he wasn't good enough to prove them wrong with his driving.'

'At that point,' Taro said, 'Shimano challenged them to race him uphill.'

'He's racing both of them?' Akito asked with his eyes wide with a mix of shock and admiration.

'Yep,' Taro replied.

'And what were you doing in here?' Kyosuke asked Taro.

'I too came to Mt Usui to get some training on the snow,' he replied, 'the stupid city council has had the fantastic idea of removing all the snow from Mt Myogi's Pass,' he added sarcastically.

'Ah, I see,' Kyosuke said, 'you could have gone over to Mt Akagi though, there's plenty of snow in there.'

'Or Mt Akina,' Akito added.

'Nah, there are too many cars on those passes lately, I thought Mt Usui's would be quieter,' Taro explained, 'obviously, I was wrong.'

'What do we do now?' Shinji asked bringing everyone's attention back to the problem that had got all of them together in the first place.

'We can't do much, really, can we?' Seisuke replied looking at his brother who shook his head in agreement.

'We could try to follow them,' Akito suggested.

'No,' Kyosuke said, 'we can't interrupt them now, we'll just have to wait till they finish.'

They all remained quiet until Ryoko broke the silence:

'It's snowing again…'

'You should get back into the car or you'll catch a cold,' Seisuke said.

'Hey, I'm an ice-skater, do you think a bit of snow will make me sick?' she asked giving him an amused look.

Seisuke didn't even bother replying to that which was lucky for, thanks to the silence, they heard something coming from the radio in Shinji's car.

'Shinji, come up: I need help,' they heard Junya's voice say. They didn't know whether the radio signal wasn't strong enough in this very mountainous region of the prefecture but, in their opinion, Junya's voice had sounded alarmingly shaky.

'Aniki, I'm going up there, you better stay here, in case those two head back down,' Seisuke said as he got inside his white RZ-1.

'I'm going up too,' Akito said and, turning to Ryoko, he said, 'please, stay with your cousin.'

Ryoko nodded and then Akito ran towards his car and climbed into it just in time to start its engine so that he could follow Seisuke's Mazda.

'He's got an amazing control of his car,' Taro commented as he observed the way Akito's V-86 cleared the first of the many corners of the pass. Everyone silently agreed with him.

Meanwhile, the object of their thoughts was trying his best to keep up with Seisuke's aggressive driving style, feeling lucky that he had re-adjusted all the settings of the car so it would be easier to handle on the snowy conditions most of Gunma's roads were in.

Akito damned Junya for his stupidity at the same time he admired the difficulty of Mt Usui's course with its extremely narrow lanes and the very menacing wall which delimited the road on the inside. What freaked a driver the most was the cliff which ran along the outside of the road, only a few centimetres away from the rusty guardrail which, in Akito's opinion, didn't look very much capable of doing its job properly.

As they entered the north side of the pass, the layer of snow became a lot thicker and, since the pass had indeed been closed to regular traffic, the only tyre marks present were those from the three cars which had just climbed the uphill.

The rest of the road was covered with virgin snow on which, not even the V-86's brand new set of winter tyres didn't seem to have any grip on at all and, because of the intense effort Akito was making so that his car would stay on the road, the young man felt as small pearls of sweat started forming on his forehead.

They had just cleared the infamous C-121 turn when Akito heard Seisuke's voice over the radio say:

'Oh shit…'

Akito was about to ask him what was wrong now when he saw them:

Two white Subaru WRXs were parked next to Junya's S18 which had crashed against the road's outer guardrail.

Seeing that made Akito's heart skip a couple of beats. He then stopped his car just behind Seisuke's RZ-1 and, climbing out of the V-86, he joined the youngest of the Takahashi brothers in a sprint to reach their team mate's car.

As they got closer, Akito realised how very unfair this whole battle had been: the two Subaru were the newest model the Japanese car maker had manufactured for the WRC. Not only that but also, and unlike Junya's Nissan, the WRX had a 4WD transmission and its two point five litre engine produced some two hundred and fifty hp making it a lot more powerful than Junya's Nissan.

'Junya!' Seisuke exclaimed seeing that the twenty four year old didn't even try to get out of his crashed car.

'Oh, look who's here,' one of the Subaru drivers sneered. He was a guy around Kyosuke's age and was now looking at Akito in a way which made it obvious he had recognised the young racer.

'You could have helped him!' Akito exclaimed angrily.

'Hey,' the other guy said, 'he didn't want us to go anywhere near his car…'

Glaring at both of them, Akito made his way to the driver's side of Junya's Nissan where Seisuke was already helping their team mate get out of his car.

'Are you alright?' Akito asked.

Junya seemed to ignore him and, speaking to Seisuke with a very shaky voice, he said:

'I've messed up our winning streak.'

'Hey, don't worry about that,' Seisuke said, 'let's get you out of here…'

'No,' Junya said, 'I'm okay…'

'Are you sure?' Akito asked.

'I think the engine's still alright,' Junya said still talking to Seisuke, this time, Akito couldn't help but to notice the way the older man seemed to completely ignore him.

This made Akito take a couple of steps away from the S18.

'So,' one of the two Subaru drivers, the one who'd spoken to him first, said, 'you've finally come up to finish his job…'

'What?' Akito asked still feeling quite upset about Junya's cold attitude.

'That's your ride there, isn't it?' the guy said pointing at Akito's Toyota.

'Yeah, but…'

'I'm Nanishi Hajime,' the guy said, 'I must say that you look a lot younger in person but I won't do you any favours because of that…'

'What do you want?' Akito asked beginning to get seriously pissed off.

'I want to race you,' Hajime said.

'No,' Akito said.

'No?' Hajime asked raising his eyebrows in surprise, 'you're turning down a challenge?'

Akito was going to reply to that when he saw Seisuke walking towards them.

'Akito, let's go,' he said, 'Junya says he should be able to make it back to Maebashi with his car.'

'Okay,' Akito nodded and, as he turned round to walk back to his car, he felt as Hajime shoved him so roughly that Akito had to make an effort not to fall flat on his face.

'HEY!' Hajime shouted, 'DON'T TURN YOUR BACK ON ME, YOU BASTARD!'

'I'm not here to race, and even less to pick up a fight,' Akito said turning round so he could face the Subaru's driver.

'I'm afraid but it's too late for that,' Hajime said and, without any further warning, he threw a punch at Akito, making him fall sideways onto the snow.

'What the…' Seisuke said running back to where Akito was, 'What in the fuck do you think you're doing?' he exclaimed as he crouched to help Akito get back up.

'Seisuke, it's alright,' Akito said wiping the blood off from his split lip, 'if he wanted a race, he's got one.'

'Akito…' Seisuke started, not liking at all the icy tone his younger friend's voice had acquired.

'You,' Akito shouted pointing at Hajime, 'let's race.'

'Akito,' Seisuke insisted, 'you can't race against him.'

'No, that's right,' Akito said smiling in a way which completely freaked Seisuke out, 'I'm racing the two of them.'

'WHAT?' Seisuke shouted, 'ARE YOU NUTS?'

'You should know the answer to that question by now,' he said, 'just make sure you and Junya get back down safely.'

Seisuke was going to protest when he saw Akito walking away from them and, as he climbed into his V-86, the young man shouted:

'We'll go uphill, if you catch up with me, you win.'

Both Hajime and his friend nodded to that and, seeing how little he could do to prevent the whole thing from happening, Seisuke ran back to his car so he could inform his brother and, just as he was closing his RZ-1's door, he saw Akito's Toyota driving off with the two Subaru going after him.

'Fuck,' Seisuke whispered talking to no one in particular.

Meanwhile, Akito's determination was fuelled by the intense anger the young man felt. The pain on his lower lip just made him feel even more resolute to keep increasing the gap which separated him from the two Subaru.

Forcing himself to treat the car's pedals as carefully as his father had taught him to while driving the old Trueno on the snow, he managed to push his V-86 even harder than usual and soon, he found himself drifting through the very tight corners of the Usui course with almost as much ease as he did when driving up Mt. Akina.

With only a quarter of the distance left to the summit, Akito realised that he could no longer see any of the two Subaru on his rear view mirror but, knowing better than to slow down, this made him drive even faster.

Soon after that, he reached the spot where the barrier which closed the access to the pass was. He then stopped, made a three point turn manoeuvre and, as he started driving back downhill, he saw the two WRXs driving towards him.

He didn't stop to say that he'd won the race. Instead of that, Akito just went past them and kept driving, listening to some gut feeling which told him that things weren't going to be quite so easy.

As usual, his racer's instincts served him right for he soon saw as the two Subaru turned round and, judging by the speed in which both started attacking the downhill, neither of them seemed to consider the matter as settled.

'Alright,' Akito said talking to himself.

'Akito?' he heard Kyosuke's voice through the radio.

'We've made it to the top but those two don't want to quit just yet,' Akito explained as he entered yet another corner, 'I'll be down in a few minutes…'

He heard Kyosuke's soft laughter and that made him smile for a brief second then he focused his attention back on the road where, using the path that the three sets of tyres had cleared while going uphill, he managed to get some much needed traction so he could try to keep some resemblance of control of his car over an increasingly slippery road.

Even so, Akito felt at least a couple of times as the rear bumper of his poor V-86 grazed the guardrail and he was grateful when he realised that they were approaching the C-121 for this meant that they were just over half way through the bottom of the pass.

Akito didn't know whether it had been because he'd been focusing so much on the road, entirely disregarding his rear view mirror but, stealing a glance at it, he had the immense displeasure of seeing the headlights of one of the Subaru.

'Shit,' Akito muttered under his breath as he saw how incredibly close the car was.

It all happened in the fraction of a second Akito used to put his hand onto the shifter to select a lower gear so he could clear what was considered the most dangerous turn of the whole course. The Subaru, after catching up with the Toyota, made it straight for the V-86's rear bumper and the push made Akito lose control of his vehicle for a precious few instants.

Then, the element which had helped his father so many times, the one which allowed for many drivers to win their races, made it possible for Akito to get away from this race in one piece too:

Sheer good luck.

That's what it was, Akito thought as, by some bizarre miracle, he felt that the steering wheel responded to his commands and, as he avoided hitting the guardrail by a hair, he saw that Hajime's WRX, probably driven mainly by inertia, crashed against the guardrail where Hajime had tried to make Akito crash his V- 86 in the first place.

Akito, going against his best judgement, stopped the car and, getting out of it, he ran towards the Subaru.

'Hey, are you alright?' Akito asked as he saw Hajime climbing out of his car while his friend stopped the other Subaru right next to them.

'Yeah,' Hajime replied looking at the smashed front of his WRX, 'just go, you've won.'

'No, I haven't,' Akito said shaking his head, 'although, next time you want a race, talk to our leader first.'

'I will, this doesn't end here,' Hajime said then, Akito remembered that he was supposed to be angry at him and, with a tone of voice as cold as the current temperature, he said:

'It probably doesn't but, right now, we're even: you've made my team mate crash, now you've crashed your car too.'

Akito then walked back to his car and, climbing into it, he drove all the way down to the base where, a very anxious looking group of people were waiting for him.

'Have Junya and Shinji gone back home?' Akito asked seeing that neither of the two men were there.

'Yeah,' Kyosuke replied and something in the older guy's expression told him that something else was wrong.

'What's up?' Akito asked and he saw as Kyosuke took a deep, calming breath.

'Junya has just quit the team: he says that as long as you're in it, he no longer wants to be in the Golden Arrows.'

_To be continued…_


	14. Chapter Thirteen

**Programmed Lives – Fifth Stage **

_Chapter Thirteen _

They all remained silent for an indefinite period of time until Akito felt Ryoko's hand on his arm. This made him look at her.

'We should go home,' the girl said.

'But…' Akito started, 'what about Junya?' he asked looking at Kyosuke.

'We can't do anything about him,' Kyosuke replied, 'Ryoko's right though, we should head back home.'

'Kyosuke,' Akito started again.

'Let's not talk about this now,' the Golden Arrows' leader said flicking his eyes for the shortest of moments towards Taro Nakazato.

'Alright,' Akito agreed and, with this, he made his way back to his car which it still had its engine on.

'Takahashi,' Taro said and, hearing that, both Seisuke and Kyosuke looked at him.

'Yes?' Kyosuke replied.

'I don't acknowledge this as a proper race so, as far as the Myogi Devils are concerned, the Golden Arrows are still undefeated,' the X-3's driver said and, seeing Kyosuke nod to that made him add, 'let's organise a gathering when the snow clears away, alright?'

'Sure, just give me a call and we'll be there,' Kyosuke said.

Then, copying Akito, both Takahashi brothers climbed into their RZ-1s as Nakazato got back into his Mitsubishi. They all drove back into the main road which led to the motorway where they saw the dark blue X-3 driving away from them as he made his way back to Myogi.

They made it back to Maebashi about an hour later and, after they had parked all three cars in front of the Takahashi residence, Akito got out of his V-86 and walked towards Kyosuke.

'Hey,' he said.

'Akito, not now,' Kyosuke started shaking his head in a way that made his bleached spikes move too.

'I'll quit the team,' Akito announced and that got him all the attention, not only from Kyosuke but also from Ryoko and Seisuke.

'YOU'LL WHAT?' the latter shouted rushing towards Akito.

'Akito…' Kyosuke started.

'Look, I think I'm messing up with your team,' Akito said, interrupting his team's leader.

'What are you talking about?' Kyosuke asked frowning.

'You can't quit!' Seisuke exclaimed, 'Aniki, tell him he can't quit!'

'Listen,' Akito started again, getting slightly scared of the two brothers' reaction, 'Junya's been your friend since you two were in high school.'

'That's true,' Kyosuke said, 'but Akito, you're a lot more than a friend to us, you're like family.'

'Yeah, even Uncle Keisuke said so,' Seisuke added.

'Guys,' Akito started, and despite the fact that he felt very flattered by those words, he said, 'I just don't want to ruin the team's spirit.'

'Hey,' Kyosuke started, 'if anyone has messed up with the team's spirit tonight, that's Junya.'

'Yes,' Seisuke agreed, 'he shouldn't have challenged anyone without Aniki's consent, and he knows that.'

'But…'

'You aren't quitting,' Kyosuke said resolutely, 'as your team leader, I'm not accepting your resignation.'

'There,' Seisuke said nodding to his brother then, looking at Akito, he added with his usual ironic tone of voice, 'did you really think you could leave us just like that?'

Even after hearing these highly reassuring words, sleep didn't come easy for Akito and, the fact that he had a beautiful girl sleeping next to him didn't make it any easier so, the next morning, when Ryoko woke him up with a very sweet 'Merry Christmas', Akito realised that he had the characteristic headache from when one hadn't had a proper night of sleep.

'Hi,' he said trying to smile nonetheless, 'Merry Christmas to you too.'

They got dressed and went downstairs where Akito had his very first breakfast with the whole Takahashi family, minus Akiko who still was at the hospital.

He was happy to see that Keisuke had stayed true to his word and the didn't even flinch seeing Akito there however, and not wanting to push his luck, and as Ryosuke got up so he could go back to the clinic to be with his wife, Akito decided it was due time he went back home too so, thanking Kyoko for the food, he kissed his girlfriend, greeted his two best friends and, following Ryosuke out of the house, the young man walked towards his V-86.

'Send our Season Greetings to your family,' the oldest of the Rotary Brothers said as Akito climbed into his car.

'Yes sir,' Akito replied.

Half an hour later, he parked the V-86 next to his grandfather's ancient GC8 and, seeing the Subaru badge reminded him of the race in which he'd been involved only a few hours before. He then looked at his Toyota and started re-considering the fact that maybe, just maybe, a 4WD would have been a much better choice than a car with an FR layout.

He felt his eyes widen with shock and, walking back to his car, he caressed its bonnet and said:

'Sorry, I didn't mean to think that…'

He then heard a very familiar sounding raspy chuckle and, turning round, he saw the old and wrinkly face of his grandfather who, right now, looked very amused.

Akito cleared his throat as he felt himself get rather warm on his face.

'Er…' he started.

'Don't worry, I too talk to my car all the time,' Bunta said and, for some reason, Akito didn't have the slightest doubt about that for, in fact, the old man seemed to have a much better relationship with his car than with anyone else.

'Say, Grandpa,' Akito started and, as he walked towards the house's front door with his grandfather by his side he explained to the old man about what had happened the previous night, 'what do you think I should do?' Akito said after he'd finished and as the two of them sat down on the sofa.

'I think you should listen to that Kyosuke brat, he seems to know what he's talking about.'

Akito nodded to that and was about to say something when he saw his mother walking into the room wearing an apron around her waist and a very worried expression on her face.

'There you are!'

Only then, he realised that he'd forgot to do something relatively unimportant: warn his parents that he was going to sleep at the Takahashi's.

'Er…'

Natsuki shook her head and said:

'You're lucky Kyoko sent me a message telling me you were going to stay over night at their house.'

'Yeah, sorry I…'

'You know we don't mind that you do but, next time, try to give us some warning, alright?' Natsuki said and, after getting Akito to nod to that, she walked back to the kitchen where she was probably busy preparing their Christmas dinner.

Akito then heard his grandfather chuckle again:

'Uh-oh, someone's in trouble,' the old man said laughing as Akito scowled at him.

'Oniichan!' he then heard his baby sister exclaim as she entered the living room followed by her father.

'Merry Christmas,' Akito said as his sister sat next to him and proceeded to explain to her older brother and to her grandfather about the lovely morning she'd just spent shopping with her father.

For a whole day, and since it was Christmas, Akito decided to just enjoy being with his own family for a while, deciding that, whereas these days he seemed to be living full time at the Takahashi's, there was nothing like being with one's own family.

'So,' Bunta asked as they sat down to enjoy the absolutely delicious looking meal Natsuki had prepared for them, 'when is it that the GP2 season begins?'

'The first race is in March,' Akito explained, 'but the first tests will start in two weeks time so I'll have to be there with the team.'

'I thought they started in April, have they changed the season's calendar?' Takumi asked.

'Yes, they have,' Akito replied, 'they're now following the F-1 calendar.'

'Ah, I see,' Takumi commented, 'well, you won't have much time left to play with your street racing team, you know how busy we get when the season starts.'

'I know,' Akito said and, for the umpteenth time that day, he considered once more whether he could actually do both things.

'Don't forget that you're taking your finals this year too,' Natsuki reminded him, adding to his to-do list his least favourite activity of all: going to school.

'I know,' Akito repeated even less enthusiastically.

'I'm just saying it because with all the absences you're taking due to your racing job you may have problems with your final marks,' Natsuki commented.

'Yeah, I know that too,' Akito said getting rather tired of this conversation.

'Have you decided whether you're going to carry on studying?' Takumi asked his son who, before replying, sighed audibly.

'Not yet,' Akito replied and, as usual, Natsuki looked at him in a way which made him feel slightly inadequate.

'Hey, you two, quit pestering the poor kid,' Bunta said patting Akito on his shoulder then, ignoring the glare Takumi was giving him and talking to Akito, he added, 'don't listen to your father, he didn't go to university either and he's done pretty well for himself, hasn't he?'

Akito nodded allowing himself a grin seeing his father's completely puzzled expression: if Akito knew his father as well as he thought he did, his old man now probably didn't know whether to be pleased at having just received a very rare compliment from his own father or if he had to be angry at him for his constant interfering when it came to Akito's upbringing.

In any case, his parents decided to drop the subject and they started discussing their plans for the New Years. Thankfully, no one found weird that Akito was going to spend that evening with his girlfriend and two best friends so, the young man was saved from having to tell them where they were actually going.

So, six days later, Akito climbed out of his car to go to what he considered to be his second house. There, in the hall, he found his two best friends with their cousin getting ready to go.

'You look nice,' Akito commented to his girlfriend as she put on her black coat over a dark grey woollen dress which was so short that it barely covered half of her thighs. Seeing this made Akito feel rather warm.

'Thanks,' she said smiling at him while the two Takahashi brothers looked fairly disgusted by the whole exchange.

Ignoring that, Akito walked back to his car as the three Takahashi followed him.

'Ryoko, aren't you taking your own car?' Akito said as he saw his girlfriend climbing into his V-86.

'Nope,' she replied fastening her seatbelt, 'I don't like driving when I've got high heels on, also, it's a long way and I need to talk to you.'

'Ah,' Akito said and, as he started rolling the car down the lane, with him following the two RZ-1s, he said, 'what about?'

'You,' Ryoko replied, 'how are you?'

Akito looked at her confusedly before he returned his attention back on the road.

'I'm alright,' he said.

'I don't think so,' Ryoko countered.

'Ryoko…'

'Honestly, I think something's bothering you,' Ryoko insisted and, since Akito noticed that the girl was not going to let it go all that easily, he decided to drop his act and, after checking that his car's radio was off, he said:

'You're right.'

'I knew it!' Ryoko exclaimed a bit too cheerfully then, noticing her boyfriend's serious expression, she copied him and, frowning at him, she asked, 'so, what's wrong?'

'Everything,' he replied making her deepen her frown.

'Akito…'

'Look, I don't know, you know, for such a long time I've had everything so carefully planned out before me that I never considered doing anything else, now…'

'Baby, what are you talking about?' Ryoko asked sounding genuinely concerned.

'My life,' he replied so miserably that Ryoko's instinctive reaction was to put her hand on top of the one he was using to change the gears.

'Baby…' she said again.

'I think I shouldn't have taken my future for granted,' Akito said, 'what if my dream of becoming an F1 racer remains just that, a dream?'

'Akito, you're only eighteen years old!' Ryoko protested, not really liking the very uncharacteristic way in which her boyfriend was beating himself down.

'Precisely,' he insisted, 'it's now when I'm making most of the decisions which will forge my future and, I see as everyone's doing something tangible whereas I'm just…'

'Stop it,' Ryoko said with such a firm tone of voice that, for an instant, Akito thought he'd heard the girl's aunt speaking.

'Ryoko, I…'

'I said stop it!' she exclaimed now sounding positively angry, 'I don't like you when you talk like this. You can do anything you want with your life and, if you ask me, I think it's admirable that you've got such high targets in your life.'

'Yes but…'

'If the F1 thing ends up being an unrealisable dream, so be it. You still can do loads of things with your life.'

'Like what?' Akito asked.

'I don't know,' Ryoko replied, 'you've got a great voice, so you can actually become a singer like your biological mother.'

Akito snorted at that for he really didn't believe he could do that.

'…besides,' his girlfriend continued, 'if you want to go to university, you can do that next year or in fifteen years time.'

'That's true,' Akito said, 'but...'

'Then, forget about it, now you need to focus on your racing,' Ryoko said and that made Akito laugh at her, 'what's so funny?' she asked still sounding a tad on the crossed side.

'Listen to you, Ryoko,' he replied, 'three years ago you asked me to quit racing and now you're encouraging me to focus on it.'

'Hey,' the girl complained, 'I was stupid back then, it's not kind of you to remind me of such a moment of weakness.'

'Sorry,' Akito said.

'Now, are you going to stop being so miserable? We're going to a party, aren't we?'

'Yes,' Akito replied and, as usual, talking to his girlfriend made him feel much better.

'Ah, just to finish off, don't even dream of telling my cousins that you may be quitting the Golden Arrows again,' Ryoko said, 'you almost gave Seisuke a heart attack when you suggested it.'

'Really?'

'Yeah, so, don't say it ever again, understood?'

'Okay,' Akito said nodding then they remained quiet until, seeing the two RZ-1s taking a turn into what looked to be an abandoned, multi-storey car park, he turned the radio on and said, 'guys, where are we?'

'I think this is the party,' Ryoko commented seeing quite a few cars and loads of fancy dressed people crowding several of the different floors of the car park.

'I think so too,' Seisuke said, 'and, according to the navigator this is the exact address Misa sent to me.'

They found the nearest parking space and, getting out of the cars, they saw Misa and Jiro walking towards them.

'HEY!' Misa shouted so they could hear her over the very loud music, 'YOU'VE FOUND US!'

Seisuke nodded.

'This is a very interesting place to have a party,' he commented once the two of them were close enough to hear him.

'We're not here only for the party,' Jiro commented.

'We're not?' Kyosuke asked joining in the conversation.

'Nope,' Misa replied, 'look at that…' she said and, pointing at the top of the building, they all saw a car as it started drifting all the way down the car park's spiral ramp.

'Wow,' Akito gasped.

'Do you wan to give it a try?' Jiro asked to all three young men.

Akito, Kyosuke and Seisuke looked at each other and, entirely out of the blue, the youngest of the Takahashi brothers said:

'Yeah, why not?'

Akito and Kyosuke stared at him, unable to believe their ears.

_To be continued…_


	15. Chapter Fourteen

**Programmed Lives – Fifth Stage **

_Chapter Fourteen _

'Hey, I was just joking,' Jiro said frowning and looking almost as worried as Kyosuke and Akito did.

'Well, I'm not,' Seisuke said getting very serious, 'it looks like it's a lot of fun.'

'Seisuke…'

'Aniki, I'm serious, I want to do it.'

'You don't get it,' Kyosuke started, 'those cars up there,' he added pointing at the cars which were lined up to start their descent, 'they're probably specially tuned for this kind of thing.'

'So?'

'So, smartass,' Kyosuke said now getting seriously pissed off, 'you won't be able to make it all the way down with your RZ-1.'

Then, and for the first time ever, Akito witnessed something that up to that moment, he had thought to be impossible, Seisuke looked at his older brother defiantly for a second then, he turned to Jiro and said:

'Can you organise it?'

'S-sure,' Jiro stuttered.

'Great, I'll go and get ready,' Seisuke said and, with this, he walked back to the white RZ-1. Jiro, not really liking the position where the two brothers had suddenly put him into, made his way back into the building so he could arrange the whole thing.

'Kyosu.' Akito started but apparently it was his turn to be ignored for the oldest of the Takahashi brothers just bypassed him on his way to Seisuke's car, closely followed by a very alarmed looking Misa.

Ryoko exchanged a confused look with her boyfriend who, giving up trying to understand anything, just shrugged his shoulders.

Meanwhile, Seisuke was climbing into his car when Kyosuke grasped the RZ-1's door so that his younger brother couldn't shut it.

'What do you think you're doing?' Kyosuke asked.

'Having a bit of fun,' Seisuke replied.

'Look,' Misa said, 'you don't need to do this to impress me.'

Both Takahashi brothers looked at her showing their disbelief on their faces.

'Hey, I'm not doing this to impress anyone,' Seisuke explained, 'I honestly want to do it just for the sake of it.'

Kyosuke had to repress a chuckle seeing Misa's confused expression and Seisuke, noticing that his older brother had got distracted, snatched the door from his grasp, closing it before Kyosuke could do anything to prevent it.

'He's mental,' Kyosuke said as he re-joined his cousin and Akito, 'oh well, since we've got quite a few spare parts, at least I'll be able to fix the car when he smashes it.'

'Kyosuke,' Akito started very carefully as not to offend his best friend, 'I think he can actually do it.'

'Alright, you come with me,' Kyosuke ordered and, walking towards the car park's ramp, careful not to be ran over by one of the numerous cars which were going around the place, he pointed at it and said, 'do you see how narrow it is?'

'Geez.'

'Precisely,' Kyosuke said, 'if in a mountain pass you don't have much room to make mistakes, here you don't have any at all.'

'But Seisuke's good at drifting, isn't he?' Ryoko asked.

'Yeah, but not that good,' Kyosuke replied then, as an afterthought, he added, 'not even Akito's that good.'

'Thanks mate,' Akito said sarcastically and Kyosuke was going to say something when they saw Seisuke's Mazda climbing up the ramp.

'Right, he's next on the line,' Jiro explained then, observing the white RZ-1, he said, 'he surely has guts, trying this for the first time without any kind of previous training.'

'Like I said, he's mental,' Kyosuke said.

Ryoko then noticed that Misa had remained quiet throughout the entire conversation and, taking the chance that Akito was busy looking around himself, admiring all the cars which were parked around on the first floor of the car park, she walked towards the older girl and said:

'Hey, are you alright?'

'Yeah,' Misa said looking a bit startled.

'Thank you for the invitation,' Ryoko said.

'You're welcome,' Misa replied.

'Er…' Ryoko started, 'I was wondering…'

'You know,' Misa said all of the sudden, 'I thought he liked me.'

The hurt imprinted on her voice took Ryoko so much by surprise that she had to make a huge effort to reply to that.

'He does,' Ryoko assured her.

'He's got a funny way of showing it,' Misa said even more miserably.

Ryoko took a deep breath and, making sure the guys were still busy, she said:

'Look, Seisuke's not a very normal person.'

Misa's half confused, half amused look made Ryoko realise what she had just said.

'That came out wrong,' she said shaking her head, 'what I meant to say is that…'

'I know, he's like all the guys who take their street racing very seriously,' Misa finished for her.

'Yes,' Ryoko confirmed, 'also, he's just had his heart broken by a girl.'

'You told me he didn't have a girlfriend,' Misa said and Ryoko couldn't miss the accusative tone the older girl was using.

'Well,' Ryoko started, 'I told you that I didn't know if he had a girlfriend which, technically speaking, it was true because the one he did have was busy cheating on him.'

'What?' Misa asked sounding every bit as shocked as Ryoko had felt when seeing Kaori kissing that guy at the shopping centre, 'what kind of girl would cheat on a guy like him?'

'I know, it's…'

'…unreal,' Misa said, once again, finishing the sentence for her.

'Yeah,' Ryoko said and, smiling at the racer, she said, 'you know something?'

Misa shook her head.

'I like you,' Ryoko said and the older girl gave her such an apprehensive look that Ryoko was forced to hastily add, 'not in THAT sense you silly!'

'Ah, you scared me there,' Misa replied and then the two girls started laughing together.

'Hey, what's so funny?' Akito asked, he, Kyosuke and Jiro having approached the two girls unnoticed.

'Er…' Ryoko started then, looking from Misa to her boyfriend, she shook her head and said, 'you wouldn't understand.'

'He's heading down now,' Kyosuke said preventing Akito from saying anything back to his girlfriend.

'So, what are the rules?' Ryoko asked to no one in particular.

'It's a time attack,' Jiro explained, 'the best time of the night gets a prize.'

'A prize?' Akito asked.

'Yeah, essentially, the winner gets whatever he wants, excepting cars and money, he can ask for anything.'

'Sounds good,' Akito said.

'Don't even dream of it,' Ryoko said wiggling her finger in front of her boyfriend and, seeing Akito shake his head quite vigorously made everyone laugh out loud.

By the time they had all calmed down, they saw that Seisuke was already on the fourth floor out of six and seeing the almost perfect way in which he was clearing each of the turns from the spiral-shaped ramp, forced Kyosuke to reconsider the fact that, maybe, after all, his little brother wasn't at all crazy.

'Wow, look at that Mazda!' they heard someone from the public exclaim.

'I haven't seen it before, where's it from?' another one asked.

'Dunno, but he's so freaking fast!' the first one replied.

'He's from Gunma, at least that's what it says on the registration plate,' a third person, a woman, added.

Then, as though as Seisuke had heard them, dashed past the group of people standing there, confirming that he, indeed, came from Gunma.

'My god,' Jiro said checking the chronometer on his watch.

'What?' Kyosuke asked concernedly.

'Unless I'm very much mistaken, I think your little brother's just beaten the current record.'

'You're not mistaken,' a guy in his thirties said as he walked towards them, 'my name's Morisaki, who are you?'

'I'm Takahashi Kyosuke, from Maebashi,' Kyosuke said and, for some reason, he couldn't help but to think that he'd seen this guy somewhere before.

'Well, your friend's right, your brother has beaten the record I established a year ago.'

'I'm sorry to hear that,' Kyosuke said and the older guy started laughing at him, making Kyosuke feel rather uneasy.

'Don't be, I've been coming to every gathering to see if anyone good enough showed up.'

'ANIKI!' Seisuke shouted as he ran towards them, his face lit up with excitement, 'I loved it! It was so much fun!'

'Hey,' Morisaki said, talking to Seisuke, 'I don't seriously think anyone is going to beat your time so, I believe that you're the winner of the night.'

'Ah, really?' Seisuke said.

'Yes,' Morisaki said, 'so, what's it going to be?'

'Eh?' Seisuke asked looking very confused.

'What do you want as your prize?' Morisaki asked.

Seisuke seemed to consider the thing for a bit then, he looked at Jiro and said:

'Hey, you're not with Misa or anything like that, right?'

Jiro looked very much taken aback by this question and he only managed to shake his head.

'Alright,' Seisuke said and, walking purposely towards Misa, he took her head in between his hands and, bending down only slightly, for Misa was just a bit shorter than Seisuke was, he kissed her full on her mouth.

'What…' Misa said breathlessly.

'Now,' Seisuke started, giving her his best smile, 'this IS what I do to impress a girl.'

Misa just stared at him, unable to trust her throat to produce any coherent words and, at the same time, Ryoko shook her head with her eyes closed.

'Hey, you're Fujiwara Akito, aren't you?' a teenager asked while pointing at Akito.

'Er…'

'YEAH! GUYS IT'S HIM!' the teenager shouted to his group of friends who, hearing that, started running towards an increasingly frightened Akito.

'Can I have your autograph?' one of them asked shoving a GP2 magazine at him.

'Er…s-sure,' Akito replied and, as he was going to sign the magazine, opened on the page which had his profile and his photograph on it, someone else joined them and said:

'I didn't know that professional racers came to this kind of things.'

'Hey,' Kyosuke, finally deciding to intervene, said, 'he's just trying to have fun at this party, alright?'

'Okay, so, do you want to try going down?' the guy said, 'after all, for a pro like you, this should be a piece of cake.'

'Nah, I think I'll pass,' Akito replied, forgetting all about the teenager who was still waiting for him to sign the magazine.

'What, not good enough for you?' the guy said in a very menacing way.

'Hey,' Morisaki said, 'let's just keep this civil, alright? Fujiwara's just having fun and if he doesn't feel like driving tonight, let him be, alright?'

'Yeah,' the guy said then, giving Akito a foul look, he turned round and left them.

'Excuse me,' the teenager said waving the magazine at Akito who, wanting to get rid of him as quickly as possible, signed the thing as hastily as he could then, after signing a couple of other things, the teenagers felt satisfied.

'Happy New Year and, good luck for next season!' the first teenager said hugging his magazine to his chest.

'Yeah, thanks,' Akito said feeling completely overwhelmed by the whole situation.

'Hey, superstar, can I have your autograph too?' Seisuke asked teasingly.

'This is not funny,' Akito replied and, by the way he looked at the youngest of the Takahashi brothers, Seisuke realised that his best friend wasn't very much in the mood for any sort of jokes.

'It's quite scary really,' Ryoko said taking her boyfriend's hand in hers.

'Yeah, guys, let's just go home,' Akito suggested for the whole thing had just ruined it for him.

'But…'

'Kyosuke, you guys can stay but, I think I'm going to go home,' Akito said looking very much like he wanted to be anywhere but there.

'No, if you're going, we'll go too,' Kyosuke said.

'Er..' Seisuke started pointing at Misa with his head.

'Alright, I'll go with them, YOU can stay,' Kyosuke decided.

'You don't mind, do you?' Akito asked looking at Ryoko.

'No, of course not, I'd rather go home too.'

'Alright,' he said to her then, looking at Jiro, he added, 'thanks for the invitation though and, have a happy New Year.'

'Sure, same to you,' Jiro said.

With this, Akito, Ryoko and Kyosuke walked away from the group leaving behind a very concerned Seisuke.

'It must be difficult for him,' Misa commented as she looked at Akito climbing into his V-86.

'Yeah, I guess he's not used to being famous yet,' Seisuke said.

'I don't think you ever get used to that,' Morisaki said and, judging by the way he spoke, he probably knew a thing or two about being famous, this made Seisuke look at him a bit more closely then, as if he'd just had a divine illumination, he said:

'Hey, I know you! You used to be into rallying, didn't you?'

'Yeah, I won the national rallying championship about ten years ago,' Morisaki admitted.

'I knew it! Do you know that my uncle won that same championship about fifteen years ago too?' Seisuke asked.

'Who's your uncle?' Morisaki asked back, suddenly getting curious.

'Takahashi Keisuke,' Seisuke replied and had the pleasure to see that Morisaki, Jiro and, more importantly, Misa, did a double take.

'You're Takahashi Keisuke's nephew?' Morisaki asked not having fully recovered from the shock.

'Yep, why?'

Morisaki laughed at that and, shaking his head, he said:

'Now I understand why you're so good.'

Seisuke had to make a huge effort to keep a straight face so that he wouldn't look as smug as he felt after hearing those words.

Meanwhile, Kyosuke was following Akito's V-86 as they drove on a dual-carriage road which led towards the motorway which would take them back home and, as he looked at the car's clock, he saw that, with a bit of luck, they would make it home just before the midnight.

He smiled thinking of his brother's newest conquest being happy for him, even though Kyosuke knew that it probably wouldn't last for too long, after all, Seisuke had only been in love for real once, with Kaori, and they all knew how that had turned out…

'What the…' he said as he noticed a couple of headlights of a car which, despite having all the room in the world, still refused to overtake his RZ-1 and was about to signal the driver with his indicators when he saw that the car was a lot closer than earlier and, with a very risky manoeuvre, it finally went past Kyosuke's Mazda.

'Akito, watch ou…'

He didn't even have time to finish that sentence for, the next thing he knew, the car had rammed itself straight into Akito's rear bumper.

_To be continued…_


	16. Chapter Fifteen

**Programmed Lives – Fifth Stage **

_Chapter Fifteen _

Feeling the sudden impact made Akito feel extremely grateful that his father had insisted on fitting both front seats with four point racing harnesses and that the shock hadn't been strong enough to activate the airbags. He was also thankful that, knowing that Ryoko was safe enough, he didn't have to check on her because, right now, Akito needed all of his concentration in order to avoid crashing the car against the guardrail which ran on both sides of the dual-carriage road.

'Akito?' he then heard Kyosuke's very concerned voice say through the radio.

'We're alright, I think,' Akito replied as he pressed the accelerator even more, trying his best to control the car while putting as much distance between the V-86 and the dark coloured car he still had behind him.

'Who in the hell is…'

'I think I know,' Akito said, 'it's the guy from the party.'

'What?' Kyosuke exclaimed, 'the freaking bastard...'

'I think I have an idea,' Akito said allowing himself a small smile, 'Kyosuke, do you remember what you did to me when you and Seisuke first met me at the karting track?'

'Er…yeah, why?'

'Let's do it to him,' Akito proposed.

'Akito, he'll crash against your car,' Kyosuke said.

'Don't worry, he won't, I don't think he's as crazy as that,' Akito said more to convince himself of that fact than anything else.

'He's going too fast,' Ryoko pointed out and Akito, hearing his girlfriend's frightened voice, made him get even madder at the bastard.

'Kyosuke?' Akito insisted.

'Fine, let's do it,' Kyosuke finally conceded.

'What are you going to do?' Ryoko asked, still sounding pretty scared.

'You trust me, right?' Akito asked.

'You know I do,' Ryoko replied.

'Alright then, hold on tight baby,' Akito said and, seeing Kyosuke flashing his headlights at him, he braked so his V-86 would slow down quite dramatically, flinching when he heard the bastard's car crashing again against his rear bumper, 'crap,' Akito muttered.

He then looked at his rear view mirror and saw what he had hoped he would see: Kyosuke had glued the front of his RZ-1 to the rear of the other car making it impossible for it to go anywhere.

'Right,' Akito said as he braked a bit more, slowing down to a speed which allowed him to make his next move: drifting across the road, he stopped his Toyota with the driver's side facing the nose of the other car, a Honda, then, Akito prayed for all that was holy that the bastard's reflexes would be quick enough to allow him to stop his car would ram, yet again, into the V-86.

Akito heard Ryoko's gasp as he saw that the Honda had indeed stopped before hitting him but, as he looked down from his window, he saw that the front bumper was just a hair away from his door.

'Phew,' Akito sighed, feeling a huge wave of relief washing over him. He then undid his seatbelt and, asked Ryoko to do the same so both of them could get out of the car using her side's door.

By the time they both joined Kyosuke outside their cars, they saw two guys getting out of the dark green Honda.

'Are you nuts?' the guy who indeed was the one from the party shouted at Akito as he climbed out of his car.

'No, I'm merely curious,' Kyosuke said signalling to Akito so the younger man would allow him to handle the situation.

'Who is talking to you?' the guy said sneeringly.

'I'm talking to you,' Kyosuke said, still keeping an admirably calm tone of voice, 'you should just listen to me…'

'Why would I do that?' the guy asked and Akito had the satisfaction to see that Kyosuke's calmness was having a very unnerving effect on the bastard.

'Because if you don't, me and my friend here will beat the crap out of you two and then we'll call the police and tell them what you've done to my friend's car…'

'HA!' the other guy laughed dryly, 'do you even know who you're talking to?'

'Do you?' Ryoko suddenly asked and both Akito and Kyosuke noticed that the girl had the hard look on her beautiful face which warned everybody who knew her to stay away from her.

The two guys clearly didn't know that for they looked at her with equally amused expressions on their faces.

'What are you going to do baby?' the bastard said sarcastically, 'cry on us?'

Ryoko looked at them and said:

'Do you know who the North Kanto Bikers are?'

They obviously did for they frowned and the bastard's friend replied:

'Of course we do, they're a dangerous bunch of gangsters who've been in activity for over thirty years, why?'

Then, Akito and Kyosuke had to repress a chuckle seeing Ryoko's very sweet looking smile.

'Oh, nothing,' she said with as much nonchalance as possible, 'it's just that my father is their honorary leader.'

'WHAT?' the bastard shouted.

'And, of course,' Ryoko continued still keeping a very casual tone of voice, 'if he heard that you've laid a finger on me or my boyfriend, or my cousin, well, I really don't know what they would do to you.'

Seeing their horrified expressions made Akito and Kyosuke unable to contain their mirth for any longer and, at the same time, they started laughing quite loudly.

'Get the hell out of here,' Akito said, fighting to keep a straight face and, apparently, Ryoko's words had scared both of them enough for them to climb back into the car and, after manoeuvring very carefully so as not to go anywhere near either the V-86 nor the RZ-1, they drove away as fast as the Honda could go.

'Well, Ryoko,' Kyosuke started, sounding very impressed, 'I never knew you had that in you.'

Ryoko just shrugged and said:

'I've just done what Dad told me to do in case I found myself in this kind of situation.'

'You've got to love your old man,' Akito commented and, for the first time, he actually felt good about the power his girlfriend's father seemed to have, even when he wasn't there.

'Well, I wasn't sure it would work, but, in any case, I'm glad it did,' Ryoko said then, shivering quite visibly, she added, 'can we go home now? It's rather cold tonight!'

Both young men looked at each other and, seeing Ryoko go back to her usual spoilt little girl self so quickly, made them shake their heads as they smiled at her then, without bothering to check the damage done to the back of his car, Akito climbed back into it so they could, at long last, go back home.

The morning after, Akito woke up a lot earlier than Ryoko and, going down the stairs, he found her father eating breakfast all by himself.

'Good morning,' Akito said, 'and Happy New Year.'

'What did you do to your car?' Keisuke asked so suddenly that Akito stopped right where he was and, clearing his throat, he said:

'Someone crashed against it.'

'Obviously,' Keisuke said, 'was my daughter inside when it happened?'

Akito looked at him raking his brain trying to find a good enough excuse when, behind him, he felt a very reassuring presence.

'It happened because I distracted him and he braked too soon,' Ryoko replied so boldly that her father made a face which clearly said that he wished he'd minded his own business.

'Hey, you're all up already?' Kyoko said entering the kitchen.

'Happy New Year Mum!' Ryoko said kissing her mother on the cheek.

'Hey,' Keisuke complained, 'don't I get a New Year's kiss too?'

Then, both mother and daughter walked towards him and, placing themselves at either side of him, they kissed each of his cheeks.

'Now, that's better,' Keisuke said smiling happily.

The smile promptly disappeared as he saw Ryoko getting on her tiptoes and, kissing Akito full on his mouth, she said:

'Happy New Year.'

Akito rushed to eat his breakfast as quickly as possible so he could get out of Keisuke's presence then, he put on a coat and walked out of the house to check the V-86's rear bumper.

'It doesn't look that bad,' Kyosuke said walking towards him with a steamy cup of coffee in his hand.

'No, it doesn't,' Akito agreed.

'You'll still need to replace the bumper,' Kyosuke added.

'I know, and I also know the perfect place to do that,' Akito said.

Half an hour later, Akito was back in his car, driving it towards Shibukawa with Ryoko following him in her little Mazda convertible to the garage the three ex-Lonely Drivers had opened way before Akito had even been born.

'Hey!' Iketani said seeing them getting out of their cars, 'Happy New Year!'

'Same to you Iketani-san,' Akito said, 'it's so cool you're open today…'

'Son, we never close!' Iketani exclaimed then, smiling at both him and Ryoko, he said, 'what brings you two here?'

'Er…'

'Oh gosh,' Iketani said, his smile quickly disappearing from his face, 'I don't know why but I think I've already lived through something like this.'

'Well, the thing is…'

'Okay, what have you done to your car?' Iketani asked and for all answer, Akito led him towards the back of his V-86 just as Hikaru, Iketani-san's thirteen year old son, was walking towards them.

'Akito-san!' the boy screamed seeing his idol there.

'Hey Hikaru, how are you?'

'I'm great,' he replied then, seeing Ryoko there, he blushed furiously before stammering, 'h-hi…'

'Hello Hikaru-kun,' Ryoko said smiling at the boy so sweetly that he got even redder on his face.

'Ehem,' Iketani said as he crouched next to the dented rear bumper, 'let's get this fixed, shall we?'

'How long is it going to take?' Akito asked.

'Not much,' the man replied, 'thankfully, your father ordered a few parts, just in case you did something to the car.'

'WHAT?' Akito asked feeling his eyes widen with shock, 'that crazy…'

'Hey, don't you dare to speak like that about your father in front of me,' Iketani said reprovingly.

'Sorry,' Akito apologised.

'Anyway, you should have it ready for lunchtime,' Iketani said, 'come just before then because I have to go back home or my wife will kill me.'

'Alright,' Akito said, 'Iketani-san, I really want to pay for this…'

'Yeah,' Iketani said, 'and I really want a helicopter but that's not going to happen anytime soon so, let's forget about both, alright?'

Akito shook his head and, realising that he wasn't going to win this time either, he said:

'Okay, I'll be back before lunchtime.'

Iketani nodded at that before turning round to go back inside his workshop, probably to retrieve the part and the tools he needed to start working on the V-86.

'Akito-san,' Hikaru said just as the eighteen year old was about to start walking towards his girlfriend's car.

'Yes?' Akito asked.

'I've just started driving proper cars at the Centre,' he explained, 'but I'd love to have you watch me so you can tell me what you think.'

'Alright, consider it done,' Akito said making the young teenager so happy that he remembered the other teenager's face, the one who'd asked him for his autograph. This made him recall the whole incident and he felt as his brow creased into a frown.

'Are you alright?' Hikaru asked.

'Yeah,' Akito said shaking his head, 'I'll see you later.'

'Sure,' Hikaru said and, with this, Akito and Ryoko made their way towards the red Mazda and climbed into it with Ryoko getting behind the wheel.

'Ryoko,' he started as they were on their way to the centre where they were supposed to meet with Kyosuke.

'Uh-huh?' the girl said as she changed a gear, with Akito noticing how very smooth her driving was.

'I don't think we should push it quite so much with your dad, I mean, it's awfully good of…'

'Akito,' the girl started, 'he has to get used to it.'

'But…'

'Shush, you're making me lose my concentration,' she complained and, even though Akito knew that this was just an excuse so he would drop it, he took the hint and remained silent throughout the entire trip.

'Oh wow!' Akito heard Ryoko exclaim as she parked her car next to a car with a foreign number plate.

'What's wrong?' Akito asked but, seeing the way Ryoko was smiling, he convinced himself that, whatever it was, it wasn't bad.

'Fumihiro-san's here!' Ryoko said literally jumping out of her car running away from it, forgetting all about her boyfriend and about locking the car in the process.

Akito went after her thinking that, since the centre was a private property, leaving the convertible unlocked was probably not that dangerous.

'Fumihiro-san!' he heard Ryoko shout as she saw one of her uncle's oldest friends walking out of the main building with a mobile phone in his hand.

'Hey sweetie!' the old man said smiling at the girl as she hung herself from his neck, giving him an almost bear like hug.

'What are you doing in here?' she asked as soon as she released Fumihiro.

'Oh, I'm just a New Year's surprise from your old man,' he replied.

'Dad?'

'Yeah, he's got us involved in a project of his so, we're now here to help him set up a new facility for the Centre.'

'Us?' Ryoko asked.

'Yeah, Kenta and I,' Fumihiro explained, 'we've quit our jobs in Prodrive so we could help your father here.'

'Kenta is here too?' Ryoko asked and, seeing Fumihiro nod to that, she added, 'great! I haven't seen him in ages either.

Then, Ryoko started running again, this time towards the Centre's main building.

'Hello there, you've grown quite a lot since I last saw you,' Fumihiro said noticing, probably for the first time, that Akito was there too.

'Well, the last time you saw me I was only fourteen,' Akito replied.

'Yeah, that's right,' Fumihiro said, then, he asked, 'so, how's your father?'

'He's alright,' Akito replied and, thankfully, was saved from anymore questions by the arrival of Keisuke, Kyosuke and Ryoko who was already making fun of the poor Kenta.

Meanwhile, in the city of Tochigi, situated in the homonymous prefecture, Seisuke woke up to find himself staring at a ceiling which definitely wasn't the one from his bedroom in his family's house.

He turned his face slowly towards his left hand side to see the beautiful face of a sleeping Misa and, all the sudden, his brain started remembering everything that had happened the previous night, beginning with his very bold move when he'd kissed her claiming his 'prize' for being the fastest drifter of the night and ending with the girl's not so subtle invitation to spend the night with her.

Moving with the maximum care possible, he started freeing his arm from under the girl's head and, once this was done, he passed his hands over his face, trying to remove the last traces of sleep from it.

He blew out rather noisily, scaring himself in the process because, for some reason, he really didn't want to wake Misa up and, after he was sure that she was still sleeping, moving even more carefully, he sat on the bed and started looking around the room, trying to find his clothes so he could get dressed.

Then, as he finally got up from the bed, he noticed something on it that made him panic.

'Holy mother of God,' Seisuke mouthed without actually saying the words out loud: what he'd just seen had scared him so much that, within five minutes, he was already dressed, out of the house and on his way back to his white RZ-1.

Once he was back in the relative safety of his car, Seisuke grasped the steering wheel with both hands and, putting his head on top of them, he felt himself shake rather violently.

'Fuck,' he whispered, 'what have I done?'

_To be continued…_


	17. Chapter Sixteen

**Programmed Lives – Fifth Stage **

_Chapter Sixteen _

Somehow, and despite the high speed at which he was driving his Mazda, Seisuke managed to cover all the distance between Tochigi and Maebashi without crashing the RZ-1 and, as he climbed out of it, he realised that his body felt still so shaky that he wasn't even sure that his jelly-like legs would be able to carry him all the way up to his room.

He had just stepped into the house when he saw his mother walking very slowly towards the living room, carrying a mug in her hand.

'Mum,' he said, 'what are you doing up?'

Akiko looked at her son and giving him a motherly smile, she replied:

'Am I not allowed to wander around my own house?'

'Yeah, that's not what I…' Seisuke said then, realising that his mother was, as usual, using her very particular sense of humour, he shook his head and, returning the smile, he said, 'where's Dad?'

'At the hospital,' Akiko replied and, before he could ask, she added, 'your uncle and aunt are at the Centre with your cousin and your older brother.'

'Aniki's not home?' Seisuke asked with dismay for he felt very much desperate to speak to Kyosuke.

'Nope,' she replied, 'now, if you don't mind, I need to sit down.'

'No, I'm…I'm going to get a shower…'

'Seisuke,' Akiko started making him stop at mid-step, 'are you alright?'

Seisuke avoided looking at her in the eye and, nodding, he said:

'Yeah, just tired.'

He noticed that his mother was debating with herself whether she should press the issue a bit more or not then, probably deciding against it, she nodded too and said:

'Alright then, I'll be here if you need someone to talk to.'

'I know Mum,' Seisuke said and, even though there was no way on earth he could ever tell his mother about what had just happened to him, he felt grateful that she'd offered to listen to him.

Nodding once more, she made her way to the living room as Seisuke started climbing the stairs which lead to the area of the house where his room was and, the minute he got there, he took all of his clothes off and walked to his en-suit bathroom where he took a very long shower, hoping to get rid of the guilt he was currently feeling.

A few hours later, he woke up hearing the sound of someone knocking on his door, this made him realise that he'd just fallen asleep on top of his bed wearing nothing but a pair of boxers so, before he said anything, he got up and threw on himself the first t-shirt he could find and the pair of jeans he'd worn to the party.

'Seisuke?' he heard his older brother's voice through the door.

'Come in,' Seisuke said.

The door opened and Kyosuke stepped into his younger brother's room, on his face, Seisuke saw a very knowing smile.

'Hey stranger,' Kyosuke said, 'when did you get back?'

'Er…' Seisuke started, 'please shut the door Aniki, I need to talk to you.'

Hearing his younger brother's serious tone of voice made Kyosuke replace his grin with a concerned looking frown then, he shut the door and, walking towards Seisuke's desk, Kyosuke took a seat on the comfy, black leather swivelling chair his younger brother used for his lengthy study sessions.

'What's wrong?'

Seisuke sat on his bed and bowing his head down, he stared at the floor between his feet and said:

'She was a virgin.'

'What?' Kyosuke said, clearly not understanding anything.

Seisuke looked up at his brother and, taking a deep breath, he proceeded to explain to him about the night he'd just spend having sex with Misa and about the fact that, in the cold light of the morning, he'd realised that for the girl it had been her very first time.

'So, you ran away?' Kyosuke asked, his frown deepening as he looked more and more worried.

'What else could I do?' Seisuke exclaimed, 'I panicked, okay? What kind of girl gives her virginity away just like that anyway?'

'Seisuke…'

'Aniki, she didn't tell me she'd never had sex before!'

'Didn't you notice?' Kyosuke asked.

'No!' Seisuke shouted as he springing up from his bed and starting to pace up and down his room, 'I didn't alright, I don't know, these things happen, okay?'

'Alright,' Kyosuke replied trying to use a soothing tone of voice, 'I take your word for it: you're the future doctor after all.'

'Fuck, what a freaking good doctor I'm going to be if I'm this fucking insensitive,' Seisuke complained sitting back down on his bed looking so miserable that Kyosuke, for the first time ever, didn't know what to do to make his little brother feel better.

'Alright,' Kyosuke started, 'so, what's the deal? Do you want to start seeing her?'

'I don't know,' Seisuke said, 'look, I just thought it'd be fun to take her for a few dates or something like that, I never expected her to suggest for us to spend the night together.'

'Well little brother, you are just too charming for your own good,' Kyosuke said jokingly.

'Aniki,' he protested angrily, 'this is serious!'

'Alright, I'm sorry,' Kyosuke said.

'What am I going to do?' Seisuke asked, going back to being miserable.

Kyosuke stared at him for a while, trying to come up with some sort of useful advice and, after a few instants, he said:

'Do you like her?'

'Of course I do! Aniki, I had sex with her.'

'That's not what I meant,' Kyosuke said, 'what I mean is: do you like her enough for her to be your girlfriend?'

Seisuke looked at him for a while longer before shaking his head.

'That's the problem,' he said, 'I'm not sure I want to be seriously involved with anyone so soon.'

Kyosuke nodded to that.

'That's normal, after what Kaori did to you I can't blame you if you don't feel ready for another relationship.'

'Yeah, but, Aniki, I've…' Seisuke started, interrupting himself for he was unable to complete the sentence.

'Look, Seisuke,' the older brother said, 'I don't think you should feel guilty, after all, it's not like if you had forced yourself on her. She did everything out of her free will, didn't she?'

'Of course,' Seisuke said.

'There you go then, maybe it's not the most ethical way to think about this but, if she didn't tell you that it was going to be her first time, it's not your fault.'

'Aniki, this doesn't really make me feel any less of a bastard.'

Kyosuke shook his head and said:

'Why don't you think about this for a while? I really don't think you should make any decisions until you've thought things through.'

'Alright,' Seisuke said then, as his older brother got up from the chair, he added, 'come on Aniki, say it, I know you're dying to say it.'

'What?' Kyosuke said looking all too innocent.

'You know what,' Seisuke insisted.

'I haven't got the foggiest,' Kyosuke said and, as he walked back to the door, he opened it and, just as he was about to close it behind him, he turned round and, with a cheeky grin, he said, 'I told you you'd get in trouble.'

Seisuke, despite all the guilt and angst he was currently feeling, couldn't repress a smile and, a few minutes later, he went downstairs to join his family in the living room.

'Hey, what's all of this?' he asked seeing loads of little cardboard boxes spread all over the place.

'Chinese takeaway,' Ryosuke replied taking one of the boxes and a set of chopsticks.

'We're having a TV dinner,' Kyoko explained then, looking at her sister in law, she added, 'to celebrate that your mother's been out of bed for the entire day today.'

'I'm glad to hear that,' he said and, as he sat down next to his mother, Seisuke noticed that someone was missing, 'where's Akito?'

'Home,' Ryoko replied.

'Does he have one?' Keisuke asked with feigned surprise, earning himself a glare from both his daughter and wife, 'hey, I was just kidding!'

'Not funny,' Ryoko sentenced.

'Not in the slightest,' her mother agreed.

'Anyway,' Akiko said, 'Ryosuke, do you want to give that to Kyosuke now?'

'Yeah, why not,' Ryosuke replied then, putting down his food, he got up and went to retrieve an envelope from the top of the mantelpiece then, he walked towards his oldest son and said, 'Happy Birthday son.'

'Dad, my birthday's the day after tomorrow,' Kyosuke commented taking the envelope nonetheless.

'We know,' Ryosuke said, 'however, if you open it, you'll see why we're giving this to you today.'

Kyosuke opened the envelope as the rest of his family watched him closely.

'Wha…'

'I think you'll have a happy birthday, won't you?' Akiko said smiling at his son who was sitting across her.

'Dad, Mum…' Kyosuke started but, his mother interrupted him saying:

'If you start with the nonsense that you can't go because of my health I'll smack you on the back of your head.'

'Mum,' Seisuke started, 'you can't reach so high up.'

Akiko smacked him on the back of his head and, smirking, she said:

'Were you saying?'

'Ouch Mum! That hurt!' Seisuke complained as he rubbed his neck.

'Anyway,' Ryosuke said repressing a smile as he looked back at his older son, 'you better pack up tonight because your plane leaves very early in the morning.'

'Guys, I don't know what to say,' Kyosuke said.

'You don't have to say anything,' Ryosuke said, 'however, it may be a good idea if you call Kizuna to let her know that you're going to spend your birthday with her.'

'Yeah, I'll do that right now,' Kyosuke said and, getting up from the sofa, he ran out of the room and towards the table where one of the house's several phones was. Not even five seconds later, they all saw him coming back into the room with a worried expression.

'Seisuke,' he said, 'is it okay with you that I go?'

Everyone looked at Seisuke not really understanding why the oldest brother was asking him that and, feeling incredibly self-conscious all the sudden, Seisuke said:

'Of course, don't worry about me.'

'Alright,' Kyosuke said, 'it's only for a week after all,' he commented almost to himself then, shaking his head, he ran back out of the room.

'What was that about?' Ryoko asked her cousin.

'Nothing,' Seisuke said and then, he pretended to busy himself with his Kung-Pao Chicken.

'Can I have a word?' Ryoko asked him and, seeing her getting up made Seisuke think that she wasn't giving him all that much of a choice. For this reason, he left the box on the nearest table and, getting up too, he followed his cousin out of the room.

'What's going on in here?' Kyoko asked to her husband and siblings in law.

'No idea,' Akiko said frowning.

Meanwhile, Seisuke followed Ryoko to the empty dinning room and, there, the girl said:

'So, what happened last night with Misa?'

'What makes you think something happened?' Seisuke countered.

'Look,' Ryoko said, 'she's a really nice girl and I would hate to see you play around with her the way you used to do with your schoolmates.'

'Ryoko,' Seisuke said getting atypically serious, 'this really is none of your business.'

The girl looked at him with a hard expression on her face and said:

'You should talk about privacy: you and Kyosuke have done nothing but to interfere in my relationship with Akito ever since we started dating!'

With this, she turned round and, walking a tad too briskly showing how very angry she was, Ryoko made her way back to the living room.

'Great, now I've managed to upset her too,' Seisuke muttered to himself.

He didn't now that he would regret that quite bitterly as, three days later, with Kyosuke gone to the U.S. and Ryoko still not talking to him, he started feeling very lonely.

'Hello Akito!,' Seisuke exclaimed seeing Akito walking towards him.

'Hi,' Akito said looking slightly surprised to see Seisuke greeting him so enthusiastically.

'So, what's up?' Seisuke asked.

'I don't know,' Akito replied, 'why don't you tell me?'

'Eh?'

'To begin with, you could try to tell me what you've done to Ryoko, she's really mad at you.'

'Er…'

'Or you could tell me what happened between you and that Misa girl at the New Year's Eve party.'

'Er…'

'Or I could just mind my own business and pretend that you're just happy to see me,' Akito finished off.

'Could you do that?' Seisuke asked.

'Sure,' Akito said 'it's not like I'm one who enjoys gossip anyway.'

With this, he walked away from Seisuke leaving him feeling rather puzzled then, recovering from the shock, he started walking after the younger man towards the area of the Centre where Uncle Keisuke was working with his two friends Kenta and Fumihiro.

'Hey guys,' Fumihiro said seeing the two young men, 'are you coming to give us a hand?'

'Yep,' Akito replied then, looking at his future father in law, he added, 'if that's okay with you, sir.'

'Sure,' Keisuke said.

'Akito,' Kenta added, 'don't you have the GP2 tests soon?'

'Yep,' Akito replied, 'they start next week, that's why I'm spending as much time as I can here now.'

'Ah, I see,' Kenta said and was about to ask something else when Keisuke made a face which made everyone look in the same direction the man was looking at.

'What the…' Seisuke said seeing there the last person he wanted to see standing there, right in front of him.

'Seisuke, please, I…'

'Kaori, I thought I had been clear,' Seisuke started.

'Please, give me just a minute…'

Seisuke saw his uncle's and Akito's sombre expressions which clearly told him to say no to her but, for some stupid reason, and probably because he really had been feeling quite lonely recently, he decided to give in to his former girlfriend's request.

'Alright, one minute…'

'Seis…' Akito started.

'Only one minute,' Seisuke insisted as he made his way towards Kaori then, the two of them walked away from the group, just far enough to get out of hearing range.

'So, what do you want?' he started.

'Er…Seisuke, it's the New Year…'

'And?'

'Well, you know, I thought you could try to give me another chance.'

'Why would you think that?' Seisuke said and Kaori's cool mask dropped, revealing the intense anxiety the girl was feeling.

'Because you love me and you know it,' she said.

'Kaori…' Seisuke started.

'And I love you,' she continued, 'that guy from the shopping centre…it was a mistake.'

'Kaori…'

'Seisuke please, you've got to forgive me, please.'

She then passed her arms around his neck forcing him to bend down and, before he could do anything to prevent it, she started kissing him.

Kaori released him just in time for him to see that two very familiar looking red cars had stopped next to them: a small Mazda convertible and a beautifully tuned Nissan V37. Then, all of the sudden, the latter started speeding away from where he and Kaori stood.

'Oh no!' Seisuke exclaimed, 'Misa…'

_To be continued…_


	18. Chapter Seventeen

**Programmed Lives – Fifth Stage**

_Chapter Seventeen_

Even before anyone else had had the time to react, Seisuke found himself running towards his RZ-1 as he tried to get the car's keys out of one of the front pockets of his jeans and, after managing to get the door open, he climbed into it and started its engine.

He was gone in less than a handful of seconds.

'WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?' Ryoko screamed as she rushed to where Kaori was standing, still looking so stunned that she wasn't even blinking. Then, and to everyone's astonishment they all saw as Ryoko raised her hand slapping Kaori so hard that it made them flinch too.

'Ry…' Kaori started as she held her hurt cheek with her hand.

'DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW MUCH CONVINCING IT'S TAKEN ME TO GET HER HERE?' Ryoko shouted, raising her voice more and more as her face became redder and redder with fury.

'Ryok…' Kaori tried again.

'GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE, NOW!' Ryoko cried again and, just in case Kaori even considered the possibility of not obeying at once, the younger girl grabbed Kaori by the arm in a very rough manner.

'Sweethea…' Keisuke started, feeling positively freaked out seeing his usually peaceful little girl losing her cool so badly.

'OUT!' Ryoko shouted again, completely ignoring her own father.

'Alright, alright,' Kaori said realising that, given the current state Ryoko was in, it was probably rather dangerous to go against the younger girl's commands so, after a few hesitant steps, Kaori rushed back to her car walking as fast as she could.

'AND DON'T YOU DARE SHOWING UP EVER AGAIN!' Ryoko screamed after her, refusing to move a single centimetre from where she was until she saw Kaori's car driving out of the Centre with her own eyes.

'Er…' Akito started, keeping what he believed it was a relatively safe distance between him and his enraged girlfriend.

'WHAT?' Ryoko shouted at him but, seeing him take a further step backwards made her realise how scary she must have looked to everyone there. For this reason, she took a couple of deep, calming breaths before starting again, 'I'm sorry…'

Akito swallowed and, exchanging a brief look with the girl's father, he took a couple of steps towards Ryoko.

'Are you…okay?' he asked.

'No,' she replied looking now as miserable as she had been furious only a few instants before, 'I spent two hours talking to Misa on the phone in order to convince her to come with me here.'

'I see…'

'And now that bitch has ruined it all,' Ryoko said.

'Baby,' Keisuke started as he made his way to where his daughter was, 'you know I don't like it when you swear,' he added a tad on the reproving side.

'I know, I'm sorry…'

'You know,' Keisuke continued, 'just now, you reminded me a lot of when your Aunt loses her temper.'

'I'm sorry…' Ryoko repeated biting her lower lip.

'I wonder if Seisuke will manage to catch up with her,' Akito commented.

'I hope he does,' Ryoko said, 'and I hope he apologises to her in every way he knows.'

'Why?' Akito asked, 'what has he done to her?'

'You don't know?' Ryoko asked looking incredulous and, seeing Akito shaking his head, she said, 'come with me and I'll tell you.'

Meanwhile, the white RZ-1 was being pushed to its limits as Seisuke tried to make it to Tochigi as fast as he could. So far, he'd been very unlucky with the traffic lights but, now that he was on the motorway, there was nothing that could make him stop.

He didn't even care if he got a fine and, since he was going at over two hundred kilometres an hour, he didn't have to worry about any police patrols for they would never even try to go after him.

Seisuke then saw it: the red Nissan was just a bit ahead of his Mazda.

Knowing he was probably pushing it a bit too much, he pressed the accelerator even more and soon, he managed to catch up with Misa's car. Only then he noticed that she was driving just as fast, if not faster, than he was.

'Shit,' Seisuke muttered as he stole a quick glance at his speedometer: two hundred and twenty kilometres an hour. This made him let out a shaky breath for, at this rate, they would end up killing themselves before he could even speak to her.

He then saw her cross the four lanes of the motorway in one single manoeuvre, indicating that she was about to get out of it and, since it was way too early for them to have entered the Tochigi prefecture, Seisuke realised that Misa probably had spotted his car tailing hers.

Feeling even more determined to keep up with her, Seisuke braked as he turned the steering wheel towards the left so he could go after her and, just as he was about to get into the outermost lane, he saw that there was a huge truck incoming his way forcing him to brake so hard that he almost sent his car into a wild spin.

'Shit' he muttered again when he was forced to wait in order to let the truck drive past him so he could then switch lanes.

After the truck had passed him Seisuke noticed that the V37 was nowhere to be seen and, what was even worse, he had missed the exit which Misa had used to get out of the motorway.

Blowing a considerable amount of air out, he almost released the accelerator's pedal and he punched the steering wheel in frustration.

'Fuck it,' he said.

Seisuke decided then that this was all a sign of fate and accelerating again, he drove to the next exit where, going around a roundabout, he got back into the motorway in the opposite sense and, this time driving a lot slower, he started making his way back home.

An hour later, he parked his car in his family's Motorsports Centre spending a few minutes inside the RZ-1 as he tried to gather enough courage so he could bring himself to face everyone.

'Hi,' Akito said seeing him walking towards them.

Seisuke just offered a curt nod.

'Did you manage to…' Ryoko started.

'Ryoko,' Seisuke said as he frowned at her, 'I tried, I really did. It was useless, she was too fast.'

Then, shocking everyone there, Ryoko didn't even argue with her youngest cousin, instead, she said:

'I'm sorry…'

'Me too,' Seisuke agreed, 'I guess it wasn't meant to be.'

'What do you mean?' Keisuke asked, joining in the conversation and looking every bit as concerned as the rest of them.

'Uncle Keisuke,' Seisuke said, 'I think I've had it with girls…'

'What?' Akito exclaimed then, sounding worried, he asked, 'are you going to become gay or something like that?'

Seisuke gave him a weak smile and, shaking his head, he said:

'No, don't worry, you're safe.'

'But Misa…' Ryoko started.

'Look,' Seisuke said, 'I'm not saying that I don't ever want to have another girlfriend, it's just that, right now, I think I'm going to focus on my studies and on the team.'

Keisuke looked at his nephew knowing that, from all the people present there, he was the one who probably understood the young man the best so he nodded his agreement and said:

'Yeah, I think that, until the right girl shows up, you're better off this way.'

'Dad!' Ryoko exclaimed as she glared at her father.

'Thanks Uncle Keisuke,' Seisuke said, 'let's get back to work, shall we?'

'Okay,' Keisuke said and, with this, both uncle and nephew started walking back into the building which housed the centre's new facility.

'Akito…' Ryoko started.

'Ryoko,' Akito interrupted her, 'I think that, for once, we should stay out of this.'

'What?'

'Please,' Akito said, 'Seisuke's had a really hard time with Kaori, I too think he needs a break.'

'You can't possibly…'

'Ryoko, please.'

'But…'

'Promise me that you'll drop this, okay?' Akito asked looking at her pleadingly.

'Alright,' Ryoko said but, unnoticed to Akito, she kept one of her hands behind her back with her index and middle finger crossed.

'Good,' Akito said, 'now, let's go.'

A few days later, and as Kyosuke came back from the US, bringing loads of presents for all of them, Akito took him aside and explained to him everything that had been going on during the short week he'd been gone.

'Wow,' Kyosuke said, 'it's true what Kizuna says.'

'What is that?' Akito asked.

'She's afraid that with all the time she'll be gone, there will be way too many changes,' Kyosuke explained, 'and, if after being away for only a week all of this has happened, I don't dare thinking of what's going to be like by the time she gets back.'

Akito smiled at that as he nodded then, he asked:

'How did it go?'

'Really well,' Kyosuke replied, 'her family's nuts but they're a lot of fun to be with. It also helps that I can speak English, otherwise it would have been a nightmare.'

'Yeah, Mum always says that I should improve my English.'

'She's right,' Kyosuke said, 'especially now that you're going to be abroad so many times a year.'

'I guess so, is just that I can't seem to get the words into my head.'

'Seisuke and I have been lucky because our mother spoke English to us when we were kids,' Kyosuke said and Akito was going to agree with that too when Ryoko came to get them both.

'Come on guys,' she said, 'Mum's going to play the videos you've brought from the US!'

'We'll be on our way shortly,' Kyosuke said and, as soon as Ryoko was gone, he added, 'I'll talk to Seisuke, okay?'

'Nah,' Akito said, 'I honestly think your uncle's right.'

'You're agreeing with Uncle Keisuke?' the twenty two year old asked looking utterly shocked by this.

'Yeah,' Akito said, 'believe me, I hate it but, I do think that Seisuke needs a break from girls, he's been going out with one girl after another since, I don't know, junior high?'

'No,' Kyosuke corrected him, 'he had his first girlfriend in his last year of elementary school.'

'Holy crap,' Akito said, 'I rest my case.'

'Yeah, I see what you mean,' Kyosuke said.

'I've even managed to convince Ryoko to drop it so, let's just let him be, okay?' Akito added.

'Yeah, okay,' Kyosuke said and, with this, both young men walked back to the Takahashi's living room where all the lights were off as they prepared themselves to watch the videos Kyosuke had recorded during his stay in the US

He laughed softly as he saw the now familiar faces of his girlfriend's family.

'Is that Kizuna's Mum?' Akiko asked seeing a very obviously Japanese woman on the screen.

'Yes, her name's Salina,' Kyosuke replied.

'Wow, she's so pretty,' Ryoko commented.

'Yeah,' Kyoko agreed, 'I see that Kizuna takes after her mother.'

'Not really,' Kyosuke said, 'I've seen a few pictures of Kizuna's late father and she looks a lot like him.'

'How old was she when he died?' Akito asked and everyone turned sharply to look at him, probably finding odd that, of all people there, he could ask such a question.

'I'm not entirely sure,' Kyosuke lied for he didn't want to tell him that Kizuna had also lost one of her parents shortly after being born.

'Ah,' Akito said and if he had found the answer weird, he didn't seem to want to take the issue any further.

'Who's that?' Seisuke asked.

Kyosuke looked back at the screen and, laughing softly, he said:

'That's Uncle Josh, he's crazy but he's as good with cars as Dad is.'

'Maybe you and him could become friends,' Kyoko commented looking at her brother in law.

'Yes, I think they'd like each other,' Kyosuke agreed smiling at his father who just nodded.

Another video started and they heard Akito gasp.

'This is the place where Kizuna's working right now,' Kyosuke explained as he saw the images he'd recorded himself.

'It looks like a NASA laboratory,' Seisuke said looking amazed by what he was seeing.

'It's very impressive,' Keisuke agreed exchanging a brief look with his older brother who, without using words, told him to register in his mind every single one of the images they were watching.

'Kizuna's so lucky,' Kyosuke continued, 'she's made friends with the Chief Engineer and he's teaching her all sorts of stuff.'

Akiko looked at her oldest son with such a troubled expression that he was forced to, very hastily, add:

'But she also has to work very hard, I barely saw her while I was there!'

They spent the rest of the evening watching the videos as Kyosuke described to them what they were seeing. He ended up doing so much talking that at the end of the night the poor guy had almost lost his voice.

At long last, and just over a week after Kyosuke had come back from the US, the whole family plus the Fujiwaras and with Kenta and Fumihiro coming as special guests, all travelled to Nagano where the inter-high ice skating championship was being held.

Ryoko had left a few hours earlier with her team so they could get ready and, for this reason, Akito had decided to drive his family himself and since he felt a tad uneasy about having his father riding next to him, he was very careful to drive as smoothly as possible.

'You release the clutch a bit too brusquely,' Takumi pointed out as Akito had just finished changing a gear.

He felt his eyebrows as they cringed slightly then, he said:

'Sorry.'

'If you practice a bit more you'll get better,' Takumi commented and Akito had to use all of his willpower not to roll his eyes.

'Yes Dad,' he said instead feeling grateful when, after an hour's drive, he parked the car outside the ice rink then, as he and his sister walked towards the Takahashi, Natsuki said:

'Honey, aren't you taking your father's advice a bit too literally? I think you were quite harsh with Akito back there.'

'Nah,' Takumi replied, 'compared to the things my father used to say about my driving, I think I'm being extremely nice to him.'

Not being able to argue against that, Natsuki passed her arm around Takumi's and the couple started making their way into the sports facility where, a few minutes later, they sat down with the Takahashi as they all got ready to cheer for Ryoko and her team and after they had seen the exhibition of the first contestant, a girl belonging to the Nagasaki prefecture team, Natsuki whispered to her husband:

'You know, I kind of regret not having done ice skating as a club activity while I was at school.'

'I don't regret you didn't,' Takumi said, 'if you hadn't joined the soccer's club I wouldn't have met you.'

Natsuki's heart skipped a beat hearing him say something as nice as that, especially because it was very rare of him to do so and, as she leant towards him to kiss his cheek, she noticed that their daughter Haruko was staring at them with an indecent amount of curiosity. This made her sit back on her chair.

'You grown ups are so weird,' Haruko commented before turning her attention back to the ice making Takumi feel worried seeing how, as she got older, the girl behaved more and more like her grandfather.

Several other skaters performed their beautifully executed choreographies then, the whole Takahashi family Akito included, held their breath as they saw Ryoko step onto the ice.

As usual, Ryoko had chosen a piece of classic music and, with the first notes of Vivaldi's Four Seasons, the girl started gliding on the ice entrancing everyone with the fluidity of her movements.

Half way through the exercise and, as she had already performed several single and double loops, twists and figures, she prepared herself for what Akito knew it was what scared Ryoko the most: her famous triple axle.

Akito braced himself as he noticed that Keisuke, who was sitting next to him, was doing the same thing. Both of them gasped as they saw Ryoko taking the impulse she needed to fly off the ice and turn once, twice, thrice then, as smoothly as she had started she landed back on the ice, with both Akito and Keisuke letting a sigh of relief at the exact same time.

Ryoko finished her virtually flawless exercise and, maybe it was because he was biased but Akito had the impression that everyone from the public was clapping for her a lot more loudly than they'd done for the rest. Then, a short hour later, the inter-high championship came to an end and, not even the excellent exhibition from the Hokkaido team managed to budge Ryoko or her team from the number one spot in both individual and collective rankings.

'Baby,' Kyoko said to her daughter after hugging her, 'do you still want to quit ice skating?'

Ryoko looked at her parents and at Akito then, playing with one of the two the gold medals which still hung off her neck, she shrugged and said:

'You know what…I'm not quite so sure anymore.'

_To be continued…_


	19. Chapter Eighteen

**Programmed Lives – Fifth Stage**

_Chapter Eighteen_

Enjoying the peace which reigned in the house in that late morning of the last day of February, Akiko was reading a book as she laid on the chaise-longue she kept for herself in her favourite room of the house: the library.

'There you are,' Ryosuke said stepping into the room, 'I've been looking for you all over the place.'

'I've been here all the time,' Akiko said smiling at her husband over her still opened book.

'Where's everybody?' Ryosuke asked, taking a seat next to his wife.

'The boys are with your brother and Kyoko at the centre,' Akiko explained, 'and since Akito's busy with his testing sessions, Ryoko's gone to Yayoi's house to, apparently, do some last minute revising.'

'Ah, that's right,' Ryosuke commented, 'they're having the end of the year exams soon, haven't they?'

'Yes,' Akiko replied and then, she tilted her head towards her husband who was looking at her in a way she hadn't seen in quite a while, 'Ryosuke…' she started and that made him smile.

'You know,' he said, 'if no one is home, this means we're all alone.'

Akiko laughed softly and, with her usual irony, she commented:

'I can see why everybody thinks you're so smart.'

This only made Ryosuke's smile widen.

'How unusual is it for us to be together, at home and absolutely on our own?' he asked.

'Very,' she replied then, biting her lower lip, she smiled back at him, 'Ryosuke…'

He didn't even bother checking with her: he just got up and, getting her off the chaise-longue, Ryosuke took his wife in his arms and started walking out of the room.

Meanwhile, Kyosuke and Seisuke were busy helping his uncle's friend Kenta empty a small truck full of all sorts of car parts so they could then take them into the new structure that had been built next to the garage which housed the karts.

'You know,' Seisuke commented feeling a bit short of breath due to the effort, 'if the worse comes to the worst, you can always get a job here.'

'Very funny,' Kyosuke said flatly, 'and thanks for the vote of confidence, little brother.'

Seisuke laughed at that then, as his laughter became a fit of coughing, Kyosuke added:

'I've told you: you should quit smoking now that you're still on time.'

'When did you start smoking?' Kenta asked frowning at the younger of the two brothers.

'A couple of weeks ago,' Seisuke replied.

'That's a horrible habit,' Kenta said, 'and you of all people should know.'

'That's what I've told him,' Kyosuke commented, happy to see that his uncle's friend agreed with him, 'he's going to be a freaking doctor.'

'Hey,' Seisuke said defensively, 'Dad's a doctor too and he used to smoke.'

'Yes,' Kyosuke countered, 'but he quit a long time ago, after Grandpa Daichiro had his heart attack.'

Seisuke just glared at him and, seeing that, made Kenta say:

'Hey boys, let's get this done, okay?'

Kyosuke stared at his brother for a while longer then, he nodded.

'Yeah, I'll have to go to the airport soon: Kizuna's coming back this afternoon.'

'That's right,' Kenta said, 'your uncle told me about your girlfriend, I'm dying to meet her.'

Kyosuke looked at the much older man and, trying to be as cheeky as his younger brother, he said:

'Hey, she's taken, okay?'

Kenta's eyes widened in shock then, realising that Kyosuke was probably winding him up, he just chuckled as he shook his head.

'So, anyway,' the older man started, 'Akito's leaving for Australia next weekend, are you going to go with him?'

'Nope,' Kyosuke replied, 'unfortunately, I have to sit my finals in two weeks' time and, besides, like I just said, Kizuna's just going to be back from the US and I doubt she'll fancy taking yet another intercontinental flight quite so soon.'

'And you?' Kenta asked Seisuke.

'No, I also need to study,' he replied then, looking at his older brother, he added, 'but, since I'm a free agent now, I could very well go if I wanted to.'

'Seisuke...' Kyosuke started.

'Boys!' they heard Kyoko's voice shouting at them from the top of the stairs which led to the main building, 'Do you want anything cold to drink?' she asked them showing them a couple of cans of some soft drink.

'Sure!' Kenta replied and, leaving the box he had in his arms on the floor, next to the truck, he started walking towards where Keisuke's wife was.

'Hey,' Kyosuke started again as he and Seisuke followed Kenta, 'what's wrong with you?'

'Nothing,' Seisuke replied.

'Well,' Kyosuke insisted, 'you've been quite bitchy in these past few days.'

'You're just being paranoid,' Seisuke said as he started walking faster so he could leave his older brother behind and join Kenta to talk to him instead.

A few minutes later, Kyosuke walked into his uncle's office where he found the man sitting behind his desk as he talked on the phone.

Keisuke signalled for his nephew to take a seat and, as he finished the conversation, he said:

'What's up?'

'Uncle Keisuke,' the young man started, 'I'm getting worried about Seisuke.'

'I know, me too,' Keisuke agreed as he passed his hand through the bleached spikes who looked so similar to those of the younger man sitting in front of him.

'The thing is,' Kyosuke said, 'he used to be the cheerful one out of us two and, I find it really difficult to deal with this new bitter self.'

'Kyosuke,' he started, 'you know what the main problem is?'

'Nope,' the young man replied.

'Seisuke's always tried very hard to be the one who was constantly happy and who always saw the bright side of everything,' Keisuke said, 'after Kaori betrayed his trust so badly and whatever happened with that other girl, he just doesn't feel like making the effort anymore.'

'Well, I sincerely hope he'll find someone else soon.'

'I hope he doesn't,' Keisuke said, startling Kyosuke in the process.

'Why not?'

'Because I think Seisuke needs to figure a few things out first and he can only do that if he stays single for a while.'

'You seem to be talking from first hand experience here,' Kyosuke said.

'I am,' Keisuke replied, 'believe it or not, before your father took it upon himself to fix up my life, I was as disenchanted by life as Seisuke is right now.'

Kyosuke stared at his uncle as an idea started forming in his brain then, smiling, he said:

'You know Uncle Keisuke: I think you've just given me a great idea…'

An hour later, Kyosuke was parking his yellow RZ-1 in the car park of Narita's airport and, as he made his way towards the Terminal 1, he pressed a button on his mobile phone then he put it on his ear and waited for an answer.

'Hello?' he heard the deep voice belonging to Takikawa Kazuo say.

'Hey Takikawa, this is Takahashi Kyosuke, do you remember me?'

'Of course I do, you still owe me a re-match,' Takikawa replied.

'Are you free tomorrow night?' Kyosuke asked.

'Er…I think so, why?'

'Fancy a race on Mt Myogi's Pass?'

'Yeah, why not…'

'Great, I'll call Nakazato so we can clear it with the Devils,' Kyosuke said, 'let's meet up there at around nine, okay?'

'Sure, see you there.'

He stepped into the terminal as he searched for Nakazato Taro's number then, dialling that one too, he put the phone back on his ear.

'Nakazato here,' Kyosuke heard him answer, then, he proceeded to explain to the guy about his plan to give Seisuke a birthday party he would never forget and, by the time Kizuna crossed the sliding doors which separated the baggage claim from the arrivals hall, Kyosuke had more than one reason to smile at her.

'Kyosuke!' she screamed as she dropped her bags and ran towards him.

He allowed her to jump onto him and, hugging her tightly, he kissed her not giving a toss about the number of people who were staring at them.

'Welcome back,' Kyosuke said as they started walking out of the terminal, with him carrying her huge suitcase.

'I want you to tell me everything that's been going on since January,' Kizuna said and Kyosuke noticed, with immense pleasure, that her sexy half-American accent was stronger than ever.

'But I've already told you by email,' Kyosuke said.

'Yeah, but I want to hear it from you in person,' she insisted.

Giving in, they spent the whole trip back to her small apartment with him telling her about Ryoko's victory in the inter-high championship, Akito's fabulous times with his new GP2 car and the few problems they'd had with Junya after he'd quit the Golden Arrows.

'Speaking of which,' Kyosuke said, 'do you think you'd be up for a race tomorrow night?'

'Sure,' Kizuna said, 'I'm dying to get back behind my baby's steering wheel.'

'Your car's fine, I've been getting it ready all week: I've waxed it, the tyres are all checked, the oil and water levels are optimal and I've filled it with high octane.'

'I knew I could trust you with it,' Kizuna said giving him a peck on his cheek.

'Hey, I'm driving!' Kyosuke complained only half-heartedly.

'I've almost forgot how prude you can be,' Kizuna said pouting.

'Prude? Me?' Kyosuke asked raising his eyebrows, 'baby, as soon as we get to your apartment, I'll show you how very wrong you are.'

'Is that a promise?' Kizuna said smiling at him in a way that it only meant one thing. This made Kyosuke shake his head as he laughed at her.

'And here I was thinking you'd be tired from the flight,' he commented.

'I've done nothing but sleep during the whole trip,' Kizuna said.

At the end, they didn't make it to the Takahashi residence until just before dinner and, when they entered the house, they saw Ryoko walking out of the kitchen carrying a few bowls in her hands.

'Hey!' the girl exclaimed seeing Kizuna there and, leaving the bowls on top of the phone's table, she ran towards her to give her a hug.

'How are you?' she said.

'I'm great, I'm very happy to be back in Japan,' she replied and, seeing the weird look Ryoko was giving her, he asked, 'what's wrong?'

Ryoko smiled at her and said:

'Yeah, I'm sure those rosy cheeks are all due to the nice and healthy Japanese air.'

Leaving an utterly stunned Kizuna behind, Ryoko turned round and picking the bowls up, she walked towards the dining room so she could finish setting the table up.

'I didn't know your cousin was so…' Kizuna whispered at Kyosuke as they made it to the deserted living room, interrupting herself, not being able to find the right word.

'Knowledgeable?' Kyosuke supplied as the two of them sat down on the sofa.

'Have she and Akito…' Kizuna asked and, seeing her boyfriend nod, she raised her eyebrows in shock and added, 'and Akito's still alive?

'He's actually allowed to stay in the house overnight,' Kyosuke replied and now Kizuna looked so taken aback by this that he couldn't help but to laugh at her.

'What's so funny?' Akito asked as he entered the living room.

'Nothing,' Kyosuke said, 'listen, I need to tell you something,' he added and then he proceeded to explain to the young man about the surprise gathering he was preparing to celebrate Seisuke's birthday as well as Kizuna's return to Japan.

'I think it's a great idea,' Akito said, 'it'll also be my last race before the GP2 season starts.'

'Aren't you going to be racing with us?' Kizuna asked frowning at him.

'Of course I am,' Akito replied, 'it's just that I doubt I'll be able to join you in every single gathering.'

'I guess not,' Kizuna replied being reasonable then, as Akito was going to add something to that, Seisuke came into the room and, not even bothering with greeting Kizuna properly, he told them that dinner was ready.

'See what I mean?' Kyosuke asked as he, Akito and Kizuna walked towards the dining room.

'Yeah,' Kizuna replied, 'he needs a race.'

'Badly,' Akito agreed.

The following evening, Kyosuke had quite a lot of trouble convincing the birthday boy that he really needed to get out of his room:

'Come on, Seisuke,' he said as he stood in the middle of his brother's almost surgically clean bedroom, 'it's your birthday.'

'Precisely,' Seisuke countered, 'I think I'm entitled to celebrate it the way I want.'

'Right, and, of course,' Kyosuke said, 'the best way to celebrate one's twenty first birthday is to stay locked up in one's room.'

'Aniki…'

'Just an hour, come with me for a drive for an hour, okay?'

'Why don't you ask Kizuna?' Seisuke asked.

'She's tired from the trip,' Kyosuke lied.

'And Akito?' Seisuke insisted.

'He's going out with Ryoko,' Kyosuke lied again.

'You're not going to give up, are you?' the younger brother asked.

'Nope.'

'Alright then,' Seisuke finally gave in, 'just for an hour.'

'Great!' Kyosuke exclaimed and, as they both walked towards the house's garage, he vowed to himself that he'd do the impossible to get his brother back to being his old, happy-go-lucky self.

Soon enough, Kyosuke and Seisuke were driving towards the motorway, the younger brother following the yellow RZ-1 with his white one.

'Where are we going?' Kyosuke heard his brother ask through the radio.

'Mt Myogi,' he replied.

'Why not Mt Akagi?' Seisuke asked.

'Why not Mt Myogi?' Kyosuke countered.

'Fair enough…' Seisuke said then, they remained in silence until, getting to the bottom of the Myogi Devil's home course, the youngest of the Takahashi brothers asked, 'what are all of this people doing in here?'

'I don't know,' Kyosuke lied as he smiled to himself.

'Aniki…' Seisuke said trying to sound pissed off.

Kyosuke, knowing his little brother as much as he did, he was pretty sure that Seisuke had probably figured out what was going on by now.

'This is a gathering, isn't it?' he heard him ask, confirming his suspicions.

'Uh-huh,' Kyosuke replied.

'So much for a quiet drive, huh?' Seisuke said, 'you had all of this planned, didn't you?'

'Yes,' Kyosuke said, 'Happy Birthday, Seisuke.'

The soft laugh he heard told him that maybe, just maybe, his younger brother was a tiny bit pleased about the whole thing and, as they made it to the summit, watching the aggressive way in which his brother was tackling the corners, Kyosuke realised that his brother was getting all geared up.

Kyosuke smiled again as he parked the car next to Akito's V-86.

'Surprised?' Akito asked to Seisuke as the two brothers walked towards him.

'Yeah,' Seisuke said and, for the first time in ages, they saw him smiling in his usual boyish way.

'Where's Kizuna?' Kyosuke asked not seeing his girlfriend there.

'I'm not sure, she and Ryoko left a while ago,' Akito replied.

'Fuck,' they heard Seisuke say, 'what is she doing in here?'

Then, Akito and Kyosuke saw Misa's red V37 driving behind Kizuna's dark grey 350Z.

_To be continued…_


	20. Chapter Nineteen

**Programmed Lives – Fifth Stage**

_Chapter Nineteen_

As the two cars stopped and parked at the summit's parking area, Seisuke started walking towards Misa's car with Kyosuke and Akito following him, just in case. Then, the three young men saw Kizuna and Ryoko climbing out of the Z33 at the same time as Misa was getting out of her V37. Both couples waited to see what Seisuke would say next.

'Misa,' the now twenty one year old started, deciding that it was due time he got things straight with the girl.

'Before you start with your senseless gibberish,' the girl interrupted him, using an extremely indifferent tone of voice, 'I'd like you to know that I'm not here because of you.'

'You're not?' Seisuke asked incredulously.

Misa laughed dryly.

'Takahashi,' she said as she glared at him and Seisuke noticed that she had called him by his surname, probably on purpose, 'contrary to what you believe, the world doesn't orbit around you.'

'I don't believe it does,' Seisuke countered glaring back at her.

'Good,' Misa said crossing her arms on her chest, looking at him defiantly, 'because it certainly doesn't.'

Then they remained silent, glaring at each other. To everyone who was watching the two of them, it seemed as though as they were sending electric shockwaves to one another.

'Er…' Kizuna started, forcing them to break eye contact.

'I'm going to get ready for the race,' Misa said turning round so she could climb back into her car, locking herself inside it making Seisuke smirk at her: did she think he'd try to get in the car with her or what?

'Kizuna, what is she doing here?' Kyosuke whispered stepping closer to his girlfriend.

'I'm sorry, she called me as I was leaving the house telling me she had found out I was back and that she wanted a re-match,' Kizuna explained, keeping a tone as low as her boyfriend's.

'But…'

'Honey,' Kizuna said, still whispering, 'I've tried as hard as I could to convince her not to come here, you know, with Seisuke being here and all, but she said she didn't care.'

Kyosuke stole a quick glance at his brother and Seisuke's hard face told him that he was a lot more bothered by the whole thing than he tried to appear.

'So,' Kyosuke said, speaking with a normal tone of voice, 'you girls are going to race each other again?'

'Yep,' Kizuna said and, realising that Misa was still waiting for the race to start, she turned to Seisuke and asked, 'you don't mind, do you?'

'Why would I? I don't care what she does,' the younger brother replied angrily as he walked away from them.

'Wow,' Akito said looking at Kyosuke.

'There it goes all our efforts to make him have a happy birthday,' Kyosuke commented bitterly.

'What's going on?' they then heard Kazuo Takikawa asking, making them wonder when had the guy got there and if he'd witnessed the whole episode.

'The girls are going to race before we do,' Kyosuke replied, 'I hope you don't mind.'

'Nope, that's alright,' Kazuo said.

'Yeah,' Taro agreed as he walked towards them, 'it's always a great show seeing two girls race each other.'

'Especially if said girls are as good looking as those two,' Kazuo commented making all of them look at the much older man as if he were some sort of pervert.

'He's not here tonight either,' Akito commented to his girlfriend as they made their way to the side of the road from where they'd see the start of the first downhill race.

'Who?' Ryoko asked.

'Shinji,' Akito replied, 'he hasn't come to any of our practice sessions since Junya left…'

'I know, I heard Kyosuke say something about that,' Ryoko said.

'I can't help thinking that this is all my fault,' Akito continued.

'It's not,' Akito heard Kyosuke say, startling him since he hadn't noticed he was standing right next to him.

'But…'

'Let's just watch the race,' Kyosuke said.

'Where's Seisuke?' Akito asked.

'In his car, he's locked himself in it,' Kyosuke explained pointing towards the white RZ-1 with his head.

'I'll go and talk to him,' Ryoko said and, before neither Kyosuke nor Akito could do anything to prevent it, she made her way to her cousin's car.

Meanwhile, Taro stood in front of the two cars as the two girls readied themselves for the race and, after the go, both cars took off at their usual staggering speed.

The minute they started climbing the short uphill section which led to the downhill one, Kizuna realised that something in Misa's driving style had dramatically changed since they'd last raced and, whereas before she was just a really fast driver, now she seemed a whole lot more aggressive.

'Not good,' Kizuna muttered to herself.

Not wanting to have such a visibly pissed off opponent in front of her car, Kizuna decided to push it as much as she could so, as they entered the first corner, her car was already heading the race and, again, she noticed how extremely well her car was performing and knowing that this improvement was due to all the attention Kyosuke had dedicated to the Z33 during her absence, Kizuna made herself a mental note to thank him for it later.

The difference in the car's attitude became even more obvious as they started descending the course's downhill and, with immense pleasure, Kizuna noticed the huge amount of grip her front tyres had meaning that Kyosuke had probably replaced them too…

'Great,' Kizuna said smiling and, with that, she depressed the accelerator pedal even more.

The half-American girl delighted herself as they reached one of the wider corners and, moving her feet over the pedals, almost as if it were the steps of some sort of dance, she made the car drift from the entry of the turn all the way to its exit.

She was having so much fun that she had to keep herself from laughing.

How much she'd missed this: the speed, the drifting, her car, the adrenaline rush that racing at her limit always made her feel. It was the best sensation in the world and Kizuna simply couldn't see herself doing anything else.

Then, seeing a couple of headlights on her rear view mirror made her go back into reality in a very abrupt manner.

'Shit,' the girl muttered focusing back on the race, trying her best to correct her mistake.

It was too late though, by the time Kizuna started trying to increase the gap between both cars, Misa's V37 was already kissing the Z33's rear bumper making Kizuna realise yet another thing: if to her this race was merely a way to have fun, for Misa this race was as serious as a heart attack.

Kizuna felt herself get all tense in her bucket seat and, as she took a very deep breath, she decided to start taking things seriously as well.

They then drove with both cars' bumpers stuck onto each other during several corners and not even the fact that Kizuna's car was a lot lighter than Misa's helped her widen the gap on the contrary, it seemed that the V37's heaviness was helping Misa. Also, seeing the way the other girl kept pushing her made Kizuna feel increasingly worried: the smallest mistake would cost them very dearly.

Just as they were reaching the final section of the course when Kizuna entered a high speed right turn, she saw Misa do something very weird: she decelerated for just a brief second then, she changed her line and made her car veer towards the right with the very clear intention of crossing her line with the one Kizuna was trying to follow.

The half-American girl felt her eyes widen in shock as she saw that Misa was determined to make her car go through the impossibly small space and, as Kizuna was trying to decide what to do, she felt as the left corner of Misa's front bumper collided against the driver's door of the Nissan 350Z.

This made both cars slide out of control and, only Kizuna's cold-headed nature made it possible for the girl to prevent her car from crashing against the wall on the left side of the road. Unfortunately for Misa, her nerves weren't quite as stable as Kizuna's so she did crash the right side of her V37 against the guardrail.

'Misa!' Kizuna exclaimed as she got out of her car running towards the other girl's, 'Misa,' she repeated as she tried to open the passenger's door only to find it locked. Taking a look inside the car, she saw that Misa was covering her face with both hands and, judging by the way her shoulders were trembling, Kizuna guessed that she was probably crying.

'MISA!' she shouted, hoping the girl would hear her through the car's window. She did for, a few instants later, Misa removed the hands from her face and, pressing a button, made the window slide downwards.

'I'm sorry,' Misa said with a very shaky voice.

'It's okay' Kizuna started, 'did you hurt yourself?'

'Nope,' Misa said as she tried to wipe her tears with her hands, 'you know where to find me, so please send me the bill…'

'What are you talking about?' Kizuna asked frowning at the younger girl.

'I want to pay for the damage I've done to your car,' Misa explained.

'Don't be silly, I can fix it myself,' Kizuna said, 'can you go back up to the summit?'

'No,' Misa replied, 'I think I'll just go home.'

'But…'

'I'm sorry, I really can't face anyone right now,' Misa replied looking as miserable as she sounded, making Kizuna guess that by 'anyone' the girl had probably meant Seisuke. Kizuna then saw as Misa turned her car's engine back on and, before she could do anything to stop her, Misa just drove off.

Walking back to her car, Kizuna crouched next to the driver's door and realised that there was an ugly looking dent on it which was covered with a smudge of red paint.

'Oh well,' Kizuna said and with a sigh, she got up and climbed back into the car and, just as she was beginning to do a three point turn manoeuvre so she could start going uphill, she saw three cars driving downhill as fast as they could.

As they got closer, Kizuna realised that two of the three cars were the Takahashi brothers' RZ-1s and, seeing that, she pulled towards the side of the road and stopped her car once again. Following the two Mazdas she saw a black Nissan R36 she'd seen parked up on the summit's car park.

She climbed out of her car as the three cars came to a stop, parking one after the other on the opposite side of the road from where she'd left her Z33.

'Kizuna!' Kyosuke exclaimed worriedly as, getting out of his car, he rushed towards his girlfriend's.

'I'm okay,' Kizuna said.

'But we heard you shouting Misa's name,' Kyosuke started, frowning at her, 'and then you didn't reply when I asked you what was going on…'

'I'm sorry,' Kizuna said, 'we had a little accident: Misa crashed her car against mine and then she crashed again against the guardrail.'

'What?' they heard Seisuke say and, as they both looked at him, he appeared as though as the word had come out of his mouth without his permission.

'She's alright but she was a bit shaken up so she decided to drive all the way down so she could go home,' Kizuna explained refraining herself from smirking seeing the way Seisuke was trying to pretend, failing miserably, that he wasn't at all concerned about the girl's wellbeing.

'Er…' he started, 'well, since I'm obviously not needed here, I'll head back up.'

With that, he climbed back into his RZ-1, turned it round and started driving uphill.

'Are you sure you're okay?' Kyosuke asked her as they watched the back of Seisuke's car disappearing around a corner.

'Yes,' Kizuna said reassuringly, 'you shouldn't have come all the way here.'

'Hey, I was worried about you and, besides, we were already driving downhill anyway,' Kyosuke replied.

'That's right, you're going to race him uphill, aren't you?' she added pointing at the black R36.

'Yep, and I should get going, Takikawa's been waiting for a while…'

'Okay, make me proud,' Kizuna said smiling.

'I will,' Kyosuke said grinning back at her.

'And don't worry about Seisuke,' she added as he made his way back to his yellow RZ-1, 'I'll talk to him.'

'Don't bother,' Kyosuke said, his smile gone, 'Ryoko's already tried and I think she's made things worse.'

'Wow,' the girl gasped and, as the two of them walked back to their rides, Kizuna thought that if Ryoko, who was famous for her amazing powers of persuasion, had not managed to convince Seisuke to be a bit more reasonable, there was no hope in hell she could.

Meanwhile, Kyosuke drove the short distance that remained to reach the bottom of the course with the black Nissan tailing him. There the two of them found quite a few people: some officials from the Myogi Devils and four of the Golden Arrows who, seeing their leader's car, walked towards the yellow RZ-1.

'Kyosuke-san,' Masato said, 'what happened to Kizuna?'

'Yeah, we saw that V37 all scratched and…' Kei commented.

'Kizuna's okay,' Kyosuke reassured them without getting out of his car, 'Misa crashed against her car but they're both fine.'

'What?' several of the Arrows exclaimed.

'I'm telling you that Kizuna's alright,' Kyosuke insisted, 'just forget about it, okay?'

'Yeah, okay,' Masato said but, as the younger guy walked away from the RZ-1, Kyosuke heard him mumble, 'poor Z33...'

The older of the Takahashi brothers smiled to himself for he knew that quite a few of the guys worshiped Kizuna's old car for the girl had beaten them with it during their practice sessions quite a few times.

'So, shall we?' Kazuo said standing next to his black Nissan.

'Sure,' Kyosuke said and, since he had remained strapped onto his seat, he just made a three point turn so his RZ-1 would face the uphill lining it up with the R36. Then, and as this was their home turf, one of the Myogi Devils appointed himself to be the countdown man.

At the go both cars took off going considerably faster than it was really necessary. Kyosuke had already predicted that for this race and, unlike that time when they had raced four years ago, Kazuo would probably try to get his Nissan in front of Kyosuke's Mazda.

Unfortunately for him, Kyosuke had also tuned his car with the intention of increasing its power as much as possible so, by the time they got to the first turn's entry, Kyosuke's RZ-1 was already half a car ahead of the R36.

Clearing the corner before the Nissan was a piece of cake and, to Kyosuke's immense pleasure, he saw that Kazuo was keeping his word to make this race a clean one so, not having to worry about any dirty tricks coming from him, Kyosuke focused all his attention on the road ahead of him.

There was yet another thing that was different about this race: Kyosuke was completely calm.

His four years of street racing experience gave him a sense of tranquillity which allowed Kyosuke to look at the whole thing in such analytic way that even his father would have been proud of him. That was a huge difference from that first race, against that same R36 when Kyosuke had been so scared and drenched in sweat that he barely remembered how to drive.

This time the twenty two year old was driving at his best and, because of this, the whole race ended up resolving itself fairly quickly: by the time Kyosuke had driven half of the course, he realised that he had lost sight of the black Nissan.

As he made it to the summit, and with the R36 still nowhere to be seen, Kyosuke started thinking that maybe this whole rematch race hadn't been very fair on the poor Kazuo who, being almost thirty years old, the man wasn't probably as fit as he used to be back in his professional racer days.

'Kyosuke, where's Takikawa?' Akito asked him as the Golden Arrow's leader climbed out of his car.

'I think he's on his way,' Kyosuke replied maintaining a neutral tone of voice.

'Aniki, what did you do to him?' Seisuke said and Kyosuke was happy to see that his little brother was at least smirking.

'Nothing, I swear,' he replied as he also saw the worried look Kizuna was giving him.

Finally, a few minutes later, they saw the Nissan's headlights and, a few more instants later, they saw Kazuo stop his car next to Kyosuke's.

'Okay, this was a bit too much for me,' Kazuo said climbing out of his car and Kyosuke felt quite guilty seeing how exhausted the poor man looked.

'You're okay?' Seisuke asked him.

'Yeah,' Kazuo replied, 'I should have challenged your brother a long time ago thought, I'm afraid I might be getting too old for this kind of races.'

'That's rubbish,' Kyosuke said, 'I'm very grateful you came all the way here to race me tonight.'

'You've always been too polite for your own good,' Kazuo said then, looking around himself, he said, 'I'm going to miss all of this once I retire.'

'Then don't,' Kyosuke countered.

'We all have to think of retiring, even the best drivers do, sooner or later,' Kazuo commented then, climbing back into his car, he shut the door and, rolling the window down, he added, 'I'll see you around, or not.'

With that, he turned his car's engine back on and giving them a quick wave with his hand, he just drove away.

'What a guy,' Kyosuke said shaking his head.

'Aniki, what do we do now?' Seisuke asked.

'We could go home,' Kizuna suggested.

'What?' they all heard Akito exclaim, 'hey, what about my race?' he asked.

Then, and just as Taro was going to offer himself as opponent, they all heard a very familiar sounding voice coming from someone in the crowd of people standing nearby.

'I'll race you.'

'Junya!' Kyosuke exclaimed seeing his long time friend and former team mate walking towards them followed by a very embarrassed looking Shinji.

'I only have one condition,' Junya said, ignoring Kyosuke's greeting as he stared at Akito.

'What is that?' the eighteen year old asked.

'If I win,' Junya replied, 'you're out of the team and I get my stickers back.'

'WHAT?' Seisuke shouted, 'YOU'RE…'

'Fine,' Akito said.

'Sounds reasonable enough,' Kyosuke agreed after exchanging a quick look with Akito.

'Okay,' Junya said, 'I'll go and get my car.'

_To be continued…_


	21. Chapter Twenty

**Programmed Lives – Fifth Stage**

_Chapter Twenty_

Akito made his way to his V-86 with Ryoko following him silently. Then, just before he took the car's keys out of his pocket, the girl said:

'Baby, you'll be careful, won't you?'

Akito looked at her beautiful face and laughed softly.

'Do you promise me you'll always ask me that before every race?'

'Yes, I will,' Ryoko replied nodding once.

'Alright, I will be careful, okay?' Akito said then, placing one of his hands on her waist, he pulled her closer to him, bent down and kissed her briefly on her lips. He then unlocked the car, got into it and, after strapping himself onto his seat, he turned its engine on.

A few instants later and with his car lined up next to Junya's light blue Nismo-tuned Nissan S18, Akito climbed back out of the car.

'Fujiwara!' Junya exclaimed, pointing at him in a very menacing way, 'mark my words: tonight you're going to lose!'

Akito remained silent as the crowd started making incredulous remarks.

'I was the best downhiller of the team,' Junya continued, making Akito think that, for some reason, the guy felt the need to inform everybody about what had made him so upset, 'then you showed up and you ruined everything!'

'Okay,' Kyosuke said, 'that's enough Junya.'

'Yes,' Seisuke added, 'you know that Aniki and I formed this team with the idea of having Akito join us.'

'Junya, it was all part of the original plan and you know it,' Kizuna finished.

'Screw the original plan,' Junya said angrily, 'before this punk showed up, we were a great team, now all the opponents can see is that we've got a GP2 racer with us…'

'That's not true!' Akito complained, 'I'm still nowhere near as good as some of you guys are.'

This made all of them turn sharply to look at him showing their profound disbelief on their expressions. Kizuna actually snorted while Ryoko looked as though as she was trying to stop herself from laughing.

'I meant at street racing,' Akito explained, noticing the looks his friends were giving him.

'Yeah, sure, of course,' Kyosuke said nodding at the younger man, talking to him with the tone of voice one used to speak to someone who was mentally disturbed.

'Argh!' Akito grunted shaking his head, 'let's just do this, okay?'

Not waiting for an answer Akito climbed into his V-86 and turned its engine back on. He then stayed there, waiting for everybody to clear the road, except for Taro who, for the second time that night, would be acting as the countdown man.

'GO!' he shouted and Akito saw Junya's car speeding away from him.

Fine, the young man thought as he saw the Nissan's badge getting further and further away from him. He wasn't worried though, he knew that he would have to drive just the same way he always did: racing against himself, ignoring the opponent.

At least, that's what both his father and grandfather had always insisted by saying that the man he needed to beat was himself. The rest were mere obstacles he needed to get rid of as quickly as possible. Then, as they made it to the first corner, he saw a drop of water falling onto his windscreen indicating that it was just starting to rain.

'Fantastic,' Akito muttered sarcastically as he adjusted his pedal work to take into consideration the fact that, with the first few drops of rain, the road would be covered by a thin film of water which could make his tyres lose contact with the tarmac.

He also noticed that Junya had slowed down too, which made it possible for Akito to catch up with him almost effortlessly then, just as they were finishing the short uphill climb, Akito saw his chance in the shape of the first left hand downhill corner.

There, and because of the sudden speed increase, one was always forced to open up a bit towards the right, leaving quite a lot of space between the car and the guardrail and Akito was happy to see that Junya had just done that.

Akito pressed the accelerator a bit more, trying to use the fact that the road was getting wetter to help him slide down. He insinuated the front of his car in the gap Junya had left but then, with the guy probably realising what Akito was attempting to do, the Nissan driver closed up the space forcing Akito to slow down.

'Fine,' Akito muttered not feeling at all surprised by this, after all, and as Junya himself had said, the guy was a really good downhill driver.

Taking a deep breath so he would decrease his heartbeat rate, Akito kept tailing the S18, waiting until it was the right moment to create another chance to overtake Junya. He didn't have to wait for too long because, just as they were about half way through the base, Junya made a very small mistake causing his Nissan to veer towards the wall.

Akito tried then to pass him there but, Junya managed to regain control of his car just in time to close the door making Akito feel rather frustrated.

The eighteen year old forced himself to remain calm, despite the fact that things were beginning to get quite desperate: he'd failed twice already and Junya had already made the only mistake he would probably make for Akito was absolutely sure that he would not make another one. This meant that it was all down to Akito to create the third chance and to make sure that this time his attacked worked.

Not wanting to waste too much time, Akito glued himself to the S18's rear bumper and without going as close as to graze it, he just used a very simple but highly effective aerodynamic rule: the car behind gets pulled by the car in front making it possible for the car behind to use up a lot less energy to go at the same speed.

Then, he just waited until they got to the following high speed, right hand corner where, after just caressing the brake pedal, Akito moved his foot immediately to the clutch and in a very quick succession, he shifted up a gear and pressed the accelerator as he turned the steering wheel towards the left where, he hoped, there would be enough of a gap for his V-86 to pass.

There, the Fujiwara luck seemed to want to intervene because, just as he passed by the light blue Nissan, Akito noticed that his front tyres had stepped on a forming puddle, sending him off flying forward but without aquaplaning and, by the time his car had cleared the corner, he found himself ahead of the Nissan.

'Great,' Akito said allowing himself a smile as he readjusted his pedal work to the current situation. If he played it smartly, he should manage to keep the first position until the end of the race. Akito had just finished this thought when he felt Junya's S18 ram against the back of his Toyota making the young man wince.

This time, the puddle his car's tyres found didn't help him at all. In fact, the layer of water made his car veer to the left when Akito needed it to go to the right so he could enter a corner which went that way.

Probably just to finish off his work, Junya hit his rear bumper again, this time sending him completely off course. Thankfully, this time Akito was prepared for the hit so, he just steeled his arms on the steering wheel and, fighting against inertia, he managed to get the car to stop just a hair away from the wall.

'Crap!' Akito thought and, as he saw Junya's Nissan drive past him, he inserted the first gear and released the clutch at the same time he was pressing the accelerator.

'Akito, what's up?' he heard Kyosuke's voice ask.

'I'm pissed off,' Akito barked out then, as he got his car back on the course, he pressed the button so the radio would be turned off.

Wondering if the rear bumper had managed to remain intact and hoping that he wouldn't have to replace it yet again, Akito just pushed his car as hard as he could and, in no time, he caught up once again with Junya there, instead of following the instinct which begged him to push Junya out of the course, Akito listened to his more rational side which told him to win this race fairly, even if his opponent wasn't willing to do so.

They both reached the last two corners of the mountain pass and, once more and almost as if it were an insult to Junya's intelligence, Akito decided to use the same technique he'd used to overtake him earlier so, sticking his car to Junya's rear bumper, he waited until the last corner, a right hand turn, to attack one last time.

Then, and just as Akito was getting ready to brake, he saw Junya's car veering towards the left, precisely the same direction Akito was about to take. In a split second, Akito made it to the right, pushed the car though the space between the S18 and the wall and, hoping for the best, he floored the accelerator as he felt all the muscles from his abdomen clench in a very painful way.

They crossed the line so close to each other that neither Junya nor Akito knew who'd actually won the race and, stopping their cars, both ex team-mates climbed out of their cars as a crowd of people walked towards them. Thankfully, it seemed like the rain was slowly receding and right now, only a few drops fell here and there.

'Congrats man, you've won,' a member of the Myogi Devils said, speaking to Akito.

'WHAT?' Junya shouted, 'I CROSSED THE FINISH LINE FIRST!'

'No you didn't,' Masato, one of the Golden Arrows, said.

'He did,' Izawa, another of the Golden Arrows, added pointing at Akito.

'Kyosuke-san told us what the deal was so,' Masato said, 'so, I'm afraid, you're definitely not one of us anymore…'

'Masato-san…' Akito started.

'Akito,' Masato said, 'the terms were clear: he challenged you, he's lost, he's out for good.'

'I DIDN'T LOSE!' Junya shouted.

'This looks pretty clear to me,' the member of the Myogi Devils said showing Junya a photo he'd taken with his mobile phone. Leaning towards the phone, Junya saw Akito's car crossing the line a few centimetres before his Nissan.

Livid with fury, he turned towards Akito and, grabbing him by the front of his jumper, he shouted at Akito's face: 'THIS IS NOT THE END OF THIS, MARK MY WORDS: SOONER OR LATER I'LL MAKE YOU BITE DUST!'

He then released Akito so brusquely that young man almost fell on the ground.

'What a horrible loser,' the guy from the Myogi Devils commented as they all saw Junya speed away in his S18.

'Hey,' Masato started, 'I've never really liked him: he was way too arrogant for our team.'

Akito just nodded to that not really knowing what else to do.

Ten minutes later, the whole of the Golden Arrows gathered at the base of the Myogi course.

'I'm sorry,' Akito said to Kyosuke, 'I've lost you two members of the team.'

'What are you talking about?' Kyosuke asked.

'Akito,' Seisuke started, 'we're not going to tell you again.'

'Baby,' Ryoko said looking at the rear of the V-86, 'I think you're going to need a new bumper.'

Akito lowered his head and scratching it, he said:

'Damn, Iketani-san's going to kill me.'

This all made them laugh even Seisuke, who was finally having so much fun that he forgot that he hadn't actually raced at all.

About a week later, the whole Takahashi family, plus the three Fujiwara who weren't in Australia, were glued in front of the TV, with the sports channel on where, in a few moments, they would be showing the first GP2 race of the season. Akito and his black and white Dallara from the PIAA-Tanaka team had qualified in fourth place, meaning that the eighteen year old had a very fair chance to, at least, get a podium finish.

'How are Takumi and Akito finding Melbourne?' Kyoko asked Natsuki.

'Oh, they're not seeing much,' Natsuki replied, 'especially because Akito didn't want to go anywhere else but to the circuit so…'

'Yeah, I know what you mean,' Kyoko commented laughing softly.

'Quiet please, it's starting,' Ryoko said.

'You'd like to be there too, don't you?' Seisuke asked his baby cousin.

'Yes,' Ryoko replied and, she was so bothered by it all that she didn't even notice the teasing tone her cousin was using then, the girl's phone started ringing startling everyone in the room, 'hello?' she said answering it and, whatever she heard made her face lit up like a Christmas tree: 'alright, be careful, okay?' she said and, after a pause, she added, 'I love you, too.'

She hanged up and, noticing the way everyone was looking at her she got all flustered and said:

'It was Akito, he wanted me to tell him to be careful...'

'Why?' Kyoko asked frowning.

'It's our pre-race ritual,' Ryoko explained then, refusing to say anything else, she stared back at the huge TV screen.

Fifteen minutes after that, the commentators announced that the cars were about to start their formation lap and, all ten pairs of eyes focused on the tiny vehicle positioned on the left side of the second row of the grid.

The camera zoomed out to show the circuit's straight and, at the same time, all the cars started moving, some of them zig-zagging across the track in an attempt to get their tyres up to an optimal temperature then, a couple of minutes later, all twenty six vehicles went back to their positions on the grid and prepared themselves for the red lights to disappear.

'And its go!' one of the commentators exclaimed and Kyosuke saw as Ryoko grabbed the edge of the sofa where she was sitting looking all tense as she watched her boyfriend holding on to his position with all his might.

'Dad,' Seisuke asked, 'they used to have two races in GP2, didn't they?'

'Yes,' Ryosuke replied, 'they've readjusted their regulations to get even closer to those of the Formula One.'

'Can you two please be quiet?' Ryoko asked without removing her eyes from the screen.

'Sorry,' Ryosuke said to his niece then, looking at his youngest son, he allowed himself a tiny smile. Turning his gaze back to the screen he saw Takumi's kid as he started his first attack on a red and yellow car belonging to one of the most famous and oldest GP2 teams: Super Nova.

'Wow,' Kyosuke gasped seeing the aggressive manoeuvre which had allowed Akito to overtake the car in third position.

'He surely doesn't drive this aggressively when we're street racing,' Seisuke agreed.

'Which is lucky for us,' Kyosuke added.

'BE QUIET!' Ryoko exclaimed, now sounding positively hysterical.

Both Kyoko and Natsuki looked at the girl understanding perfectly well what she was feeling for, not many years before, they had felt the same watching their men risk their lives. For this reason, Kyoko looked at her two nephews and shaking her head, she signalled for them to quit their chatter.

After Akito had driven in perfect kamikaze-style for forty five laps, the eighteen year old managed to cross the line in first place, winning what was his second GP2 race ever.

'YES! HE'S WON!' Ryoko shouted springing up from the sofa feeling so absolutely happy that she started hugging everyone, including Akito's grandfather who tried his best not to get all flustered.

'Oh my Gosh,' Seisuke said, 'it's the second one!'

'Yeah, let's hope all these wins won't make him too arrogant,' Kyosuke agreed.

'What are you talking about?' Ryoko said frowning at her two cousins, 'Akito's much better than that and you two know it!'

'That's right!' Haruko said looking all serious as she crossed her arms on her chest, 'Oniichan is the best!'

'Boys, I suggest a swift retreat,' Ryosuke advised his two sons making everyone laugh.

The next day, before Takumi and Akito returned from Australia, Natsuki and Haruko were at the mini-market to get some ingredients for the special meal both mother and daughter were going to prepare for the two men of the house when, just as Natsuki had sent Haruko to get some eggs, she felt someone tapping her on her shoulder.

'Yes?' she said turning round and coming face to face with a woman around her same age, who looked very familiar.

'You're Natsuki Mogi, aren't you?'

'Yes, I do know you, don't I?' Natsuki said.

'I'm Mikamura Shirai,' the woman replied.

'Shirai! How are you?' Natsuki said finally recognising her old friend from school.

'Is it true that you ended up marrying Takumi-kun?' Shirai asked her without answering to Natsuki's question.

'Yes, I did, we've been married for almost twelve years,' Natsuki replied.

'Ah, that's excellent,' Shirai said then, seeing Natsuki's confused expression, she added, 'you probably don't know this since I asked Takumi-kun not to mention it to you but, I knew about you and my father and I was the one who told Takumi-kun.'

'W-what?' Natsuki stammered as she felt her stomach freeze.

'I'm very sorry I caused you to break up with him,' Shirai continued, 'did you know that after you stopped doing enjo kosai for my father, he got himself an even younger girl?'

Hearing a very loud noise made both women turn round and, what Natsuki saw made her wish the earth would open up and would swallow her in her entirety because, standing in front of her, with a shopping basket overturned at her feet, Natsuki saw Hoshino Ran: the president of Shibukawa School's Parents Association.

'Fujiwara-sensei…' the woman started.

_To be continued…_


	22. Chapter Twenty One

**Programmed Lives – Fifth Stage**

_Chapter Twenty One_

'Hoshino-san…' Natsuki said with her throat unable to produce much more than a very strained sounding whisper.

'I can explain,' Shirai started, 'she…'

'No,' the president said, 'whatever is to be explained, Fujiwara-sensei will do so in front of the school's committee.'

'Please, no…' Natsuki said pleadingly.

'Mum, what's wrong?' Natsuki heard her almost ten year old daughter asking. This made her turn round to face her and, as she did that, Natsuki fought with herself so she could remove any anxiety from her expression.

'Baby, I…'

'You'll be receiving a notification soon,' Hoshino said looking completely unmoved by the presence of the teacher's little girl then, without stopping to pick the upturned basket up, she just left the two women and the child there.

'I'm sorry, I…'

'Shirai be quiet,' Natsuki said throwing a desperate look at her daughter.

'But…'

'Haruko, let's go,' Natsuki said taking her daughter's hand in hers and almost literally dragging the poor little girl towards the check out tills so they could pay for their purchases and get out of the mini-market as fast as possible.

'Mum, what happened back there?' Haruko asked as both mother and daughter were on their way home.

'Nothing, Mum bumped onto an old friend from school and I was very surprised, that's all,' Natsuki said, hoping that her voice didn't sound as nervous as she was.

'What's a committee?' Haruko asked making Natsuki wince.

'Nothing you need to worry about,' Natsuki replied then, hoping to distract her daughter from that highly unpleasant incident, she said, 'do you think Akito and Dad will like what we're going to cook for them?'

Haruko laughed and said:

'Yeah, those two would eat anything you put in front of them.'

'That's true,' Natsuki agreed as she tried to smile.

'We could make them something sweet too,' Haruko suggested.

'What if we make some manju?' Natsuki asked.

'Yeah, Daddy loves them,' Haruko commented and, to Natsuki's utmost relief, her daughter kept chatting about everything but what had happened back at the mini-market.

A few hours later Natsuki opened the door to let in a very tired looking Akito and a sleepy faced Takumi then, as Natsuki received a peck on her cheek from both of them, Haruko came running towards them.

'DAD! ONIICHAN!' she shouted as she jumped into her father's arms.

'Hey,' Takumi complained, 'you're getting too heavy for this!'

This made the girl glare at him then, shaking her head, she turned to her brother and said:

'You won again!'

'Yeah,' Akito replied, 'but it wasn't easy.'

'You always say the same thing,' Haruko commented making father and son exchange an amused look.

'Food will be ready shortly, go and wash your hands, okay?' Natsuki said happy to hear that her voice sounded just as it usually did.

'Okay,' Takumi said then, with his daughter still in his arms, he and Akito walked into the house and, instead of going towards the living room, they all made their way to the first floor's bathroom where, after washing his hands, Takumi went to the dining room where Natsuki was already setting the table for the four of them.

'My father's not coming tonight?' Takumi asked to his wife while helping her with the crockery.

'Nope,' Natsuki replied, 'he said he had to go somewhere but he'll be here tomorrow night.'

'I'm worried, you know?' Takumi said and Natsuki couldn't help but to think that he wasn't the only one who was concerned about something that evening.

'Why?' she asked instead.

'Because he's getting too old to be up and about doing goodness knows what,' Takumi explained.

'Oh,' Natsuki said, 'don't worry about him: I think he's going to outlive all of us.'

Takumi looked at his wife then, nodding once, he said:

'You're probably right, that shitty old man…'

'Oi!' they heard Haruko say as she entered the room with her brother, 'you're talking badly about Grandpa again, aren't you?'

Takumi decided to ignore her and, sitting down at his place on the table head, he said:

'So, what's for dinner?'

The whole family enjoyed their evening meal talking about several things, mainly about Akito's first success of the season and with Haruko asking him to describe to her every single minute of the race.

'Oniichan, one day I'll be as good as you are!' she exclaimed.

'Of course you will be,' Akito said patting her on her head, making her smile at him.

'What about ice skating? I thought you liked that too?' Natsuki asked her daughter.

'I do,' Haruko replied.

'You'll have to choose one, you know,' Takumi added.

'Why? I'm good at both and Grandpa always says that quitting is not an option for a Fujiwara,' the girl explained getting very serious.

'Right, I see,' Takumi said making himself the umpteenth mental note to tell his father to please stop lecturing the little girl for, he knew, she took everything her grandfather said down to the letter.

Finally, and since both Akito and Takumi were pretty tired from the intercontinental trip, the whole family decided to call it a day and they went all to bed then, taking the chance that Akito was talking on the phone to his girlfriend and that Haruko was already sleeping, Natsuki decided to explain what had happened earlier that day:

'What?' Takumi asked looking consternated by the whole thing, 'oh no.'

'Why didn't you tell me it was her who told you?' Natsuki asked, trying her best to keep her voice as calm as possible.

'I didn't think it was important,' Takumi replied, 'after…'

'After what you found out about me, the source didn't matter, did it?' Natsuki asked sounding every bit as upset as she had been then, twenty five long years ago.

'Yeah, something like that,' Takumi said in all honesty, 'what are you going to do now?'

Natsuki looked at him almost as if he had slapped her.

'Me?' she asked using an unusually high pitch, 'what about WE?' she added and Takumi frowned making him realise his mistake a split second too late.

'Okay,' he tried again, 'what are WE going to do?'

'I don't know!' Natsuki exclaimed getting dangerously close to hysteria, 'I just…'

'You don't want our kids to know, do you?' Takumi asked.

'Of course not,' Natsuki replied, looking horrified at the very idea of having Akito and Haruko learn about her past as enjo kosai.

'Okay, we'll have to try to keep this from them,' Takumi said.

'Definitely,' Natsuki said and, for the second time that day, she felt a knot tying up her throat, making it difficult for her to even breathe, 'Takumi…'

'Come here,' he said extending his arm towards her. She crushed herself against his chest and, for the first time in ages, she allowed herself to cry.

'Takumi…I'm so scared,' she sobbed.

'I know,' Takumi said, 'so am I,' he admitted for he really didn't know how their kids would react to such news, 'oh crap,' he added all of the sudden.

'What?' Natsuki asked turning her head back sharply so she could look up at him.

'I totally forgot,' he replied, 'we'll have a journalist coming over the house sometime this week, some motor sports magazine wants to write an article about Akito.'

'Oh gosh,' Natsuki said.

'You want me to cancel that?' Takumi asked.

'No,' Natsuki replied, 'I think we need to make sure everything is as normal as possible. You know that Akito will notice if there's anything weird going on.'

Takumi nodded to that and, even though they got in bed with that new resolution in both of their minds, sleep didn't come any easier for them that night, not even for Takumi who usually fell asleep the minute his head touched the pillow.

The next day after school and still oblivious to what was making his parents lose their sleep, Akito entered the living room, dropped his school bag and announced to his father that he was going to the centre.

'I'm going to go there to so, what about if you give me a ride?' Takumi asked getting up from the couch where he'd been sitting by himself browsing through a sports car magazine.

'Er…' Akito replied.

'I won't criticise your driving,' Takumi added.

'You promise?' Akito asked looking at his father sceptically.

'Yep,' Takumi said and, with that, they made their way to the V-86 then, as they climbed into it, Takumi added, 'the new bumper's looking good.'

This made Akito bump his head against the car's doorframe.

'Ouch!' he complained as he rubbed the increasingly painful spot, 'did Iketani-san tell you?' he asked as he tried to ignore the ache.

'Nope,' Takumi replied, 'I noticed that the two bumpers I ordered had been used and I don't know of anyone else who drives a V-86 around here.'

'Dad,' Akito said getting very serious, 'you're getting too smart for my own good.'

This made Takumi laugh softly then, he said:

'Come on, turn on the engine, you know how to do that, right?'

Grunting, Akito turned the car's engine on and, as whenever he had his father onboard his car, he treated the pedals with the maximum delicacy as to not be too rough on them.

'You know,' Takumi started as Akito drove them out of the lane and onto the street, 'I'm thinking of making you drive with a water cup.'

'What?' Akito asked.

'It's a really good training,' Takumi replied, 'don't ever tell your grandfather I said this but, it really helps.'

'Dad,' Akito said, 'I thought you weren't going to criticise my driving.'

'I'm just…'

'Okay, that's enough,' Akito said and, without any further warning, he pulled the car over to the street's pavement and, removing his racing seatbelt, he climbed out of the car and said, 'you're driving.'

'Akito, come on.'

'No, no, I insist,' Akito said.

'Okay,' Takumi said and, climbing out of the passenger's seat he moved over onto the driver's one. Akito's old man started driving the minute the eighteen year old had got back into the car, taking the seat he'd just vacated.

'Oh my…' Takumi said after he'd been driving for only a few minutes.

'What?' Akito asked.

'What have you done to this poor car?' Takumi asked patting at the steering wheel with his hands in an almost apologetic manner.

'What? Akito repeated getting even more anxious.

'I'm going to have it checked at the Centre, there's something wrong with the gearbox,' he explained.

'But Iketani-san didn't see…'

'That's because he probably wasn't looking at it,' Takumi insisted.

Akito felt so horrible about not having looked after his car properly that he didn't even want to point to his old man how much he was beginning to sound like his own father.

'Hey champ!' Seisuke exclaimed as both Fujiwara climbed out of the car then, noticing that it was Takumi who'd been driving, the younger of the Takahashi brother's jaw fell leaving him open mouthed.

'Is your uncle in his office?' Takumi asked the still astonished looking Seisuke.

'Yeah, he is interviewing a new instructor,' Seisuke replied nodding, still fighting to recover from the shock of having seen the legendary Fujiwara Takumi driving his son's car.

'Alright, I'll go and get the guys to take a look at your V-86,' Takumi said looking at his son and, with this, he left the two young men alone.

'That's so cool man,' Seisuke said.

'It's not such a big deal,' Akito started, 'we still have another seventeen races to go.'

'What are you talking about?' Seisuke asked looking very confused.

'Er..GP2?' Akito replied.

'Who's talking about that?' Seisuke asked now looking incredulous, 'I'm talking about your old man test driving your ride!'

'What?' Akito said.

'Do you know how much both Aniki and I would love to get our father back behind the wheel of our RZ-1s? We'd love for him to tell us what he thinks about the changes we've made to them.'

'But I thought he helped you guys with the tuning and all,' Akito commented.

'He did it because of your race with Aniki,' Seisuke explained, 'but, you know, ever since Mum got sick his interest for cars has reached a new historical minimum.'

'Well, that's understandable, isn't it?' Akito said.

'Of course,' Seisuke replied, 'I just hope he gets back to it now that Mum's out of the woods…'

'She is?' Akito asked.

'Yep,' Seisuke replied smiling, 'she'll still need to take some medicines to keep everything under control but she's fine and back to almost normal.'

'That's excellent,' Akito said.

'It is,' Seisuke agreed, 'you know, I really didn't want to think about it but, I just don't know what I would have done if…you know…'

'Yeah, I do,' Akito said and, Seisuke looked at him wondering if his best friend ever thought of his biological mother, 'anyway,' Akito started, interrupting Seisuke's train of thoughts, 'where's your brother?'

'He's with Kenta and Fumihiro, helping them with Uncle Keisuke's new project…'

'What in the heck is this new project about anyway?' Akito asked for, still now, he didn't have the foggiest about what his future father in law wanted to do in that mysterious building he'd constructed next to the main one.

'We don't know yet,' Seisuke replied, 'Aniki thinks it must be some sort of tuning workshop or something like that.'

'Maybe your uncle wants to open up a tuning facility, you know, to teach us all how to tune our cars properly,' Akito suggested.

'I don't know but, Aniki told me this,' Seisuke said, 'whatever it is that they're building there, it doesn't have a very normal engine.'

'Engine? What engine?' Akito asked.

'Uncle Keisuke doesn't know we've seen it,' Seisuke explained, 'but Aniki and I have seen Fumihiro and Kenta working on some weird looking engine. It must be some sort of experiment because not even Aniki could tell what type of engine it was.'

'Wow,' Akito gasped, 'so that's what they needed all those parts for.'

'Yes,' Seisuke said, 'I'll give them both anything if they told me what they're doing in there.'

'Same here,' Akito said getting extremely curious all of a sudden.

_To be continued…_


	23. Chapter Twenty Two

**Programmed Lives – Fifth Stage**

_Chapter Twenty Two_

It was the last Friday of winter and as usual, the Takahashi brothers' and Akito were the first to arrive at the car park in Mt. Akagi where the Golden Arrows usually gathered. The eighteen year old couldn't wait to get back into his car so he could practice a little bit of mountain racing…

'How's our superstar today?' Seisuke joked as he patted his friend's shoulder.

'I wish you stopped me calling that,' Akito complained.

'How did the interview go?' Kyosuke asked his younger friend.

'Argh,' Akito grunted, 'don't even talk about it! I mean, I don't usually like journalists but this one really got on my nerves.'

'Hey, you should be used to this by now,' Seisuke said, 'with all the journalists that you guys have around during the races.'

'No, no,' Akito started, shaking his head, 'at the circuit I have the team's press officer who takes care of most of them.'

'Anyway,' Kyosuke said, 'it's a pity you're going to school tomorrow.'

'Why?' Akito asked feeling confused at the sudden change of topic.

'Because we've got passes to go and see an exhibition some D1 drivers are doing at Motegi,' Seisuke replied.

'WHAT? Akito exclaimed, 'why didn't you tell me before? I could have made up something so I could go!'

'Sorry,' Kyosuke started, 'we just didn't think your parents would allow you to skip any more lessons.'

'Screw that!' Akito said, 'I want to go!'

'You could always try and convince your parents,' Kyosuke suggested.

'Yeah, it's not too late and we do have an extra pass,' Seisuke said.

'I'd love to but, like you said: Mum will never let me miss any more schooldays,' Akito confirmed sounding pretty miserable, 'school sucks so much! I can't wait to finish it.'

'Another two weeks and it'll be over,' Kyosuke pointed out.

Akito was about to reply to that when they saw the first couple of cars from their other team mates driving towards them and soon, the whole team was complete. Well, not quite, there were three cars missing: Junya's, Shinji's and...

'Where's Kizuna?' Seisuke asked his brother once he'd finished telling his team about the goals he expected from them during that practice session.

'She's busy,' Kyosuke replied with a very non-committal tone of voice.

'Too busy to show up to one of our practices?' Seisuke asked raising his eyebrows in surprise.

'Yeah,' Kyosuke replied and, to Akito, he still sounded as though as he was hiding something from everyone, Akito also saw that Seisuke had noticed that something was wrong too for, frowning at his older brother, he said:

'Aniki, you better keep your eyes wide open.'

'Seisuke,' he started, 'not all women are like Kaori. I hope you know that.'

'I wouldn't be so sure,' Seisuke replied sounding rather bitter, 'I'm just trying…'

'I know what you're trying to do but don't worry,' Kyosuke said, 'I know Kizuna and she would never do that to me.'

Seisuke looked at his brother for a second before lowering his gaze to the ground.

'That's what I used to think of Kaori,' he almost whispered still sounding a bit upset.

'Seisuke…'

'Aniki, it's none of my business so I'll just trust that you know what you're doing,' he said then, he turned round and following the rest of the guys, he climbed into his white RZ-1 and started its engine.

'Akito,' Kyosuke said noticing the worried look the younger man had on his face, 'don't worry: I know exactly where Kizuna is but I couldn't tell Seisuke.'

'Where is she?' Akito asked.

'With Misa,' Kyosuke replied, 'Kizuna's been helping her fix up her car.'

Then, before Akito could say anything to that, Kyosuke turned round too and made his way back to his Mazda, leaving Akito standing there. He only realised that everyone had started driving without him a couple of minutes later.

'Dammit,' he said as he ran towards his V-86 which, by the way, was working better than ever thanks to his father's intervention. The young man had felt so embarrassed at being caught mistreating his ride so badly that he'd vowed to himself to, from then on, take much better care of his car.

A few hours later, Akito got back home thinking that everyone from his family would be sleeping but, to his immense surprise, he found his mother wide awake, watching some random TV show.

'Mum, what are you doing up?' he asked as he stood under the doorway.

'I couldn't sleep,' she replied and, for some reason, she didn't seem to be too willing to look at him.

'Are you alright?' Akito asked.

'Yeah, I am,' Natsuki said, still keeping her eyes glued to the TV screen.

'You know,' Akito said, 'now that I think of it, you've been a bit edgy this whole week, is something the matter?'

'No,' Natsuki replied, finally looking at him while shaking her head vigorously, 'of course not.'

Akito frowned at her for a bit then, remembering his conversation with the Takahashi brothers, he decided to test his luck.

'Er…' he started, 'Mum, you know what D1 is, right?'

Natsuki looked confused for a bit then, nodding, she said:

'Yes, I do, it's some sort of professional drifter's league, isn't it?'

'Yep,' Akito replied then, swallowing, he said, 'the thing is, Kyosuke and Seisuke have tickets for an exhibition some D1 racers are doing at Motegi and…'

'When is it?' Natsuki asked.

'Er…'Akito hesitated, 'tomorrow morning.'

'Ah,' Natsuki said and Akito felt quite surprised for he was expecting something more like a rotund negative coming from her, 'at what time?' she asked shocking Akito even more.

'Er…it starts at eleven but Kyosuke and Seisuke are leaving at nine so they get there with plenty of time.'

'Ah,' Natsuki repeated and again, Akito had definitely not predicted that kind of reaction either.

'Er…' Akito said biting his lower lip for a second, 'do you think I could, you know…'

'You want to go?' Natsuki asked all of a sudden.

'I'd love to Mum but, I've got school tomorrow,' Akito felt himself forced to point out.

'Oh, that's alright,' the woman said, 'it's not like if you'd miss all that much, after all, it's the last day of regular school before the exams and you've already missed quite a few days anyway.'

Akito decided to remain as still as possible thinking that, if he even moved an inch, his mother would realise that what she was saying made no sense whatsoever.

'I'll tell your teacher that you had one of your racing engagements,' she added, 'which, technically speaking, it's not so far from the truth, is it?'

The eighteen year old allowed himself to shake his head albeit very slowly.

'Okay, now, go to bed,' Natsuki said, 'it's nearly one o'clock in the morning.'

Akito turned round and, walking with his automatic pilot on, he made it all the way to his room still feeling so confused about the whole thing that, only when he emptied his pockets and placed his mobile phone on his desk, he realised that his mother had just given him permission to skip school and go to the D1 exhibition with the Takahashi brothers.

He then rushed to make a quick phone call, before his two best friends would go to sleep.

The next day, as he woke up an hour earlier than he usually did to go to school, he had a quick shower and went downstairs to get some breakfast before he would leave to go to the Takahashi's.

'Guess what, Oniichan,' Haruko said as she too was up awfully early that morning.

'What?' Akito asked as he buttered himself a piece of toast.

'I'm going to the go-kart circuit with Grandpa!'

'What about school?' he asked his sister.

'Mum said it's okay if I miss it today because we've already done our exams and we're just doing club activities during the weekends,' the almost ten year old girl replied.

'Ah, okay,' Akito said and, had it not been because he was too happy about going to a professional drifting show, he would have got a little more than suspicious about their mother's unusually carefree attitude. In any case, and as he climbed into his car, he pushed that thought to the back of his mind and started focusing on the fabulous techniques he would see that day.

'I still can't believe your mum allowed you to come with us,' Kyosuke said as Akito followed the two brothers towards one of the circuit's entrances.

'Neither can I,' Akito said then, smiling happily, he added, 'it's what my father always says: never argue with any woman because you rarely win the argument.'

'That's too true,' Kyosuke agreed smiling back and the two of them laughed seeing Seisuke's not-quite-so-sure expression.

'You two are too sad,' Seisuke said as he quickened his pace and Akito was going to say something to that when Kyosuke put his hand on the younger man's arm and, whispering, he said:

'Forget it.'

Akito obeyed, mainly because as soon as they took their seats at the main grandstand, he became so absorbed by everything he was seeing that he didn't pay anymore attention to the younger of the Takahashi brothers. Especially after the first cars started coming out of the pit lane and onto the track.

'I should think you'd be used to all of this,' Kyosuke commented seeing Akito's awed face.

'Nah,' Akito replied, 'when I'm racing in the GP2, I never get to see things from the public's perspective: this is great!'

Kyosuke laughed softly and, shaking his head, he said:

'You're so weird.'

'Wow!' Akito exclaimed, 'that's not too bad, is it?' he added pointing at one of the cars, an old Mazda RX-7 FD series, which was drifting its way around one of the circuit's hairpins.

'Dad and Uncle Keisuke can do that with their eyes closed,' Seisuke commented, seemingly unimpressed by the whole thing.

'That's true,' Kyosuke said, 'and let's not talk about what YOUR father could do with his AE86 down there.'

'Or my grandfather,' Akito added and all three of them grinned at one another suddenly wondering if, instead of going to Motegi, it wouldn't have been better to ask the four older men to do a private exhibition for them. Then, as quickly as it had appeared, Seisuke's smile vanished as it was replaced by a deep frown.

'Are you stalking me or what?' he said as he got up from his seat.

Both Akito and Kyosuke looked towards where Seisuke was staring to find Misa walking down the stairs with a couple of cans of Coke, looking as though as she was heading their way.

Misa glared at him and, pointing at a group of people who was sitting nearby, she said:

'Not that it's any of your business but, I'm here with some friends.'

'Yeah, right,' Seisuke said sounding utterly incredulous.

'You're just so full of yourself,' Misa spat and, shaking her long mane off her shoulder, she just walked away from Seisuke making her way to where her friends were sitting down. There, she sat next to some guy who looked a bit older than her and, giving him one of the cans, he smiled at her as she started chatting with him.

'Er…' Akito started as he tried to get Seisuke's attention to focus on him.

'I'm going to get a drink,' Seisuke said and, without asking them whether they wanted anything, he climbed the stairs, taking two steps at a time as though as he couldn't wait to put as much distance between him and the girl as possible.

'Great,' Akito muttered as he sat back down next to Kyosuke.

'I should have imagined she'd be here,' the older guy almost whispered, 'after all, Motegi's only a short drive from Tochigi City and, Misa's a racer so…'

'Hey, it's not your fault,' Akito said, keeping the same low tone of voice, 'what's with Seisuke, anyway? I mean, he said he doesn't want to go out with her so…'

'It is true,' Kyosuke started, 'he doesn't want to date her but that doesn't mean that Seisuke doesn't like her. In fact, he's very attracted to her and that's why he gets so mad at her every time he sees her.'

Akito looked at Kyosuke clearly not having understood a single word of the entire explanation.

'Just forget it,' Kyosuke said then, after chuckling, he added, 'you know, sometimes I think it's a miracle you managed to get a girlfriend at all…'

Akito couldn't debate that for it was true: if it hadn't been because of Ryoko's audacity, he doubted he'd have ever been able to gather enough courage to ask her out.

Meanwhile, back at Shibukawa, Natsuki stood in front of the door of the school's main meeting room, feeling even more anxious than when she saw Akito onboard his GP2 car.

'You'll be fine, just tell them what we've agreed on,' Takumi whispered to his wife as he squeezed her hand in his before letting it go.

She looked at him one last time nodded once and knocked on the door. After getting told to come in, she opened it and stepped into the room leaving Takumi outside.

'Fujiwara-sensei,' the school's old but kind looking headmaster said, gesturing with his hand so she would sit down on a chair placed before the table behind which the ten members of the school's committee were.

'Good morning,' she said, bowing her head briefly before taking a seat.

'It has come to our attention,' the old man said, 'that you kept something about your past hidden from us…'

Natsuki swallowed as she felt her palms get very moist with sweat, the intense anxiety she felt only allowed for her to give a quick nod.

'I see…'

'Fujita-sama,' she started, 'I was only…'

'Do not try to justify that by saying you were young!' Ran Hoshino said with a very harsh tone of voice.

'Hoshino-san,' Fujita said, 'why don't we let Fujiwara-sensei explain to us her version of the facts?'

'After all, that's why she's here,' Imamura-sama, one of the school's most important patrons, said.

'Thank you,' Natsuki said bowing her head once again then, taking another deep breath, she started again:

'When I met Papa…'

'Who?' Hoshino-san asked, interrupting her yet again, probably hoping to confuse Natsuki.

'That's how the man I used to date asked me to call him,' Natsuki explained feeling so embarrassed that she had to fight to stop herself from crying.

'Go ahead,' Imamura-sama said, a deep frown appearing on his refined looking face.

'Well, I was seventeen when I met Papa and he asked me to go and help him pick up a present for his daughter. He said that his girl was my same age and he hoped to get a good present if I gave him some advice.'

Hoshino's highly disapproving snort interrupted her once more but Natsuki, refusing to let the woman's more than annoying attitude to disturb her, she carried on:

'He then said that I was very kind and that he wanted to offer me a meal to repay me for the favour I had done to him. During that first meal he got my phone number and, from there, he started calling me asking me to go to several places with him.'

'And you didn't think all of this was wrong?' Hoshino asked her.

'No,' Natsuki replied honestly, 'I never believed that it was wrong because Papa told me that he was lonely and I liked being with him because, unlike the boys from my age, he talked about very interesting things.'

'Well,' Imamura-sama said, 'I can perfectly see how a middle aged man may have caused some impression on such a young girl.'

'But he paid you to go out with you!' Hoshino exclaimed accusingly.

'Yes,' Natsuki said, 'in a way, he did. He offered me money so I could get myself the things I wanted to buy but, again, he told me that it was just a way for him to express his gratitude for the company I offered him and I believed him.'

'How very convenient,' Hoshino said sarcastically.

'Hoshino-san,' Imamura-sama said, 'I think I've heard enough and, if you excuse me, I don't seriously think this is such a severe matter to require my presence here.'

'Imamura-sama!' Hoshino exclaimed, 'this woman...'

'This woman,' Imamura-sama said, 'was young and very impressionable. It's understandable that she would believe everything this person, who was much older than her, would tell her. Fujiwara-sensei clearly realises that she made a mistake and, in my opinion, there's nothing that prevents her from continuing the excellent job she's done up to now.'

'We're not going to fire her?' Hoshino asked sounding utterly incredulous.

'Well,' Imamura-sama said, 'that's not my decision: it's Fujita-sama's but, as far as I'm concerned, Fujiwara-sensei's a very competent and highly qualified teacher and it'd be a pity to have to do without her.'

'I agree,' Fujita-sama said.

'Me too,' another committee member said and, soon, everyone of the members agreed with the headmaster. Everyone except Hoshino who, looking livid with rage, said:

'Alright, I accept the majority's vote but, I'd like to leave it in written that I disagree with the decision.'

'It will be recorded,' Fujita-sama said pointing at the committee's secretary who was busy writing the meeting's minutes with a laptop.

Five minutes later, an extremely relieved Natsuki let Takumi drive her back home while, at the school's car park, Ran Hoshino was busy talking on the phone to her husband.

'Dear, can you believe this? That Fujiwara-sensei was nothing short of a prostitute when she was at school and they're still going to allow her to carry on teaching here…' the woman said and, she was so engulfed in her own conversation that she failed to notice that someone was eavesdropping on her.

This person got a phone out of his pocket and dialled a number on it:

'Hey, it's me, I hope you haven't sent that article to the editor yet,' he said then, after a short pause, he added, 'great, because I've got us quite a scoop on Fujiwara Akito's family.'

_To be continued…_


	24. Chapter Twenty Three

**Programmed Lives – Fifth Stage**

_Chapter Twenty Three_

A week later, Akito was circling the last of the answers of an absurdly difficult grammar test when he heard the teacher's voice announcing that the time was up. Akito, like the rest of his classmates, got up to hand in the paper and as he placed it onto the teacher's desk the old woman looked at him offering him a kind smile:

'Fujiwara, I'm happy to see you've managed to answer every one of the questions.'

'Er…' Akito started not really knowing if his teacher was paying him a compliment or she was simply making fun of him in front of the whole class.

'Considering all the absences you've done this year I think you've done pretty well during the exams,' the teacher explained making things a lot clearer to the eighteen year old.

'Thank you,' Akito said giving her a curt nod. He then went back to his desk and picked up his school bag to leave, for the last time ever, his classroom. School, at long last, was finally over.

Five minutes later, he walked out of the building and towards the car park so he could get into his beloved V-86 when he noticed a couple of boys reading some magazine. The two of them saw Akito, did a double take and then they started whispering to each other furiously.

Akito shook his head as he climbed into his car for, every time more, he was slowly getting used to being recognised. After all, he was becoming quite famous, especially amongst the people who actively followed motorsports.

Starting his car's engine, he drove out of the school's car park and onto the road so he could go to the Takahashi's where, he hoped, he would be able to spend some time alone with his girlfriend.

'Hey man,' Seisuke said opening the door for him, 'you're okay?' he added looking incomprehensibly worried.

'Y-yes,' Akito stammered, 'shouldn't I be?' he asked frowning at his friend who, for some strange reason and for the first time ever, seemed as though as he was reluctant to say whatever he had in his mind.

'Er…' Seisuke started, 'I think you better come in.'

Akito followed the younger of the two Takahashi brothers inside the house feeling more confused than ever and in the huge living room the two families shared, he saw Kyosuke and Ryoko sitting there. Akito had the distinct impression that the two of them had just been talking about him for, the minute he stepped into the room, they both looked at him sporting equally guilty expressions.

'Hey, what's up?' Akito asked as he sat down next to his girlfriend.

'Er…' the girl started, 'you…'

'Guys,' Kyosuke said, interrupting his cousin, 'I've already told you: it's probably a whole bunch of rubbish.'

'Hello?' Akito said now getting rather annoyed, 'can anyone tell me what's going on?'

'Er…' Ryoko started again, 'I take you haven't seen this, have you?' she added handing him a magazine which, by the looks of its cover, it was the same the two boys from his school had been reading. Akito took the magazine in his hands being careful to keep it in the page Ryoko had opened for him.

There, written in huge letters, Akito saw something that made him widen his eyes as far as they could go:

'GP2 DRIVER FUJIWARA AKITO'S ADOPTIVE MOTHER AND HER PAST AS ENJO KOSAI'

It took him just a few minutes to scan the whole article and to realise that the journalist had not mentioned a single thing of what he'd said during the interview. Instead of that, the guy had written almost exclusively about his adoptive mother's past as a paid-date girl citing some 'reliable source' whose identity had been concealed in order to preserve the source's privacy.

The article went on with the dramatic circumstances in which Akito's biological mother, famous pop singer Minami Yoshimura, had died and how this tragedy had made her husband, genius driver Fujiwara Takumi, retire from professional racing. By the time Akito finished reading the article he started feeling quite sick.

'This is just bullshit,' Seisuke said snatching the magazine out of Akito's hands and throwing it angrily on the floor.

'Akito…' Ryoko started placing her hand on Akito's knee. He then looked at her for an instant, got up from the sofa and said:

'Excuse me…'

'Akito, where are going?' Kyosuke asked, getting up too.

'Home,' Akito replied as he walked out of the room.

Then, all three Takahashi looked at one another and, without exchanging a single word, they all got up and followed the eighteen year old out of their house.

'Hold on,' Ryoko said as she climbed into the V-86's passenger's seat.

'What are you…' Akito started

'We're coming with you,' Ryoko interrupted him as she fastened her seatbelt, indicating with her tone of voice that he didn't have any say in the matter.

Nodding once, he started the Toyota's engine and drove out of the Takahashi's lane with both RZ-1s going after him and, not even twenty minutes after leaving the Takahashi residence, Akito, Kyosuke and Seisuke parked their cars outside the Fujiwara's home and, as they walked towards the entrance, they saw a very distraught Natsuki stepping out of the house.

'Mum,' Akito said, 'what's wrong?'

Natsuki looked at him and frowning, she looked as though as she was about to burst into tears.

'Mum?' Akito repeated, raising the tone of his voice.

'Akito,' he then heard Takumi said as he, too, was leaving the house.

'Dad, what's going on?' Akito asked.

'We're going to get your sister at the ice rink,' Takumi explained, 'you stay here and wait for us: we need to talk…'

'Mum, Dad, does this have anything to do with the article?' Akito asked no longer hiding the anxiety he was feeling.

'Akito,' Takumi said, 'stay home, we'll talk about this later.'

With that, both Takumi and Natsuki climbed into the latter's light yellow Nissan Micra then, Takumi turned the car's engine on and drove off leaving Akito and the three Takahashi behind.

'Aki…' Ryoko started.

'Let's go inside,' the young man said and, without waiting for anyone, he started walking towards the still open front door. The two brothers exchanged a worried look with their cousin before following their friend into the house's living room.

The four of them sat in complete silence for a few minutes until, probably getting tired of the awkwardness of the situation, Kyosuke said:

'Your father probably wants to discuss with you guys what you're going to do against that bastard of a journalist…'

'No,' Akito said shaking his head, 'I think that what's written in the article is all true…'

'WHAT?' Seisuke exclaimed, 'You can't poss…'

'Guys,' Akito insisted, 'I think I know my parents well enough and the way Mum looked earlier on…well…'

'But…' Ryoko started.

'You know what upsets me the most?' Akito asked looking at her.

'No,' she replied shaking her head briefly.

'Why did the journalist have to mention that she's only my adoptive mother?' he asked and all three Takahashi looked taken aback by this entirely unexpected question, 'I mean,' Akito continued, 'I know she's not my biological mother but…I just…'

'Baby…' Ryoko said, taking Akito's right hand in both of hers, he looked at her and she was shocked to see the amount of pain in her boyfriend's eyes.

'All these years,' Akito explained, 'it's been very easy for all four of us to pretend that she was my real mother, mainly because not many people knew that she's not. Now the whole nation knows and…I don't know…'

'Hey,' Kyosuke said, 'I don't know you but, as far as I'm concerned, she's your mother, she's always been there for you, hasn't she?'

'Yes and that's the whole point,' Akito replied, 'even if my biological mother was my father's first wife, I've always considered Natsuki as my mother and it pisses me off to see how she's treated as if she were some sort of second-class parent just because she adopted me rather than giving birth to me…'

Ryoko kept staring at her boyfriend amazed to see how the young man didn't seem to be concerned in the slightest about his mother's dubious past. If she had always thought that Akito was a really special person, she had just received a very tangible confirmation of this fact.

'I think I'm going to make some tea,' Ryoko announced releasing Akito's hand and getting up from the sofa.

'Okay,' Akito said looking up at her.

'Green, no sugar, right?' Ryoko asked giving him a small smile.

'Yes please,' Akito replied without returning the smile.

'I'll have…' Seisuke started.

'Black tea, one sugar,' Ryoko interrupted then, looking at Kyosuke, she added, 'and for you just a glass of water…'

Without waiting for their answers, she walked out of the room making her way into the Fujiwara's kitchen which, by now, the girl knew almost as well as the kitchen in the Takahashi residence.

'She knows us too well,' Seisuke commented making the other two young men nod to that and Akito was going to add something when they heard the front door open and the rest of Akito's family coming into the house. An instant later, the three of them saw Akito's parents entering the room followed by Akito's almost ten year old sister. The girl's very serious expression made Akito worried.

'Hey,' he started but Haruko walked past him and sat down on the huge pillow the little girl always used to sit in front of the TV.

'We'll just go,' Kyosuke said as he and Seisuke motioned to get up.

'No,' Takumi said, 'you can stay.'

Both brothers sat back down next to Akito as Takumi and his wife did the same on the two armchairs. Ryoko entered the room at that precise moment carrying a tray with three cups of tea and a glass of water.

'Oh,' she gasped and, leaving the tray on the table, she said 'I'll go and make some more tea.'

She then hurried back out of the room.

'Mum, Dad,' Akito started, getting up from the sofa and turning round so he could be face to face with both his parents, 'I don't care about what Mum did when she was younger.'

'Son,' Takumi started, 'I…'

'Dad,' Akito interrupted him, raising his tone of voice just a tiny bit, 'I really don't care about that and, I don't think Haruko does either, do you?' he asked looking at his sister who started shaking her head promptly, 'see?' he continued.

'But…' Natsuki started.

'Mum, I seriously don't care,' Akito insisted, 'I just…' he said but then he interrupted himself seeing his mother's eyes getting alarmingly shiny, 'Mum…'

Not caring about the fact that his two best friends where there, Akito crouched next to his mother and, hugging her, he said:

'Mum, please…'

'Akito, Haruko,' Takumi said, 'are you two sure you don't mind?'

'No,' both siblings replied at the same time then, Akito pulled himself away from his mother, got back up and said, 'besides, right now we've got a much bigger problem: they're going to flip over this at the school and let's not speak about how Tanaka-san is going to react to this news.'

'I've already spoken to your team manager,' Takumi said, 'he's got his press officer writing a press release denying the contents of the whole article as we speak.'

'Okay, then we only have the problem with your job,' Akito said talking to his mother.

'They already knew about this and she had to speak before the school's committee,' Takumi explained making Akito frown.

'What did they say?' he asked.

'They voted for your mother to carry on working as usual,' Takumi replied, 'however, this was before the article was published and now, I don't know if they'll be so willing to ignore the scandal.'

'Like I said,' Akito commented, 'the only problem we have is Mum's job.'

'No,' Takumi said, 'that problem is your mother and mine's and we'll take care of it. You, on the other hand, have to worry about this coming weekend's race.'

'I forgot about that,' Akito said for he had actually managed to forget about the GP2 race that would be held in Suzuka in less than a week's time.

'Lucky you,' Ryoko commented sarcastically as she stood leaning against the living room's doorframe.

By the time the day of the race finally arrived, Akito had been running away from journalists and people who were just curious to ask him all sorts of questions for so long that, as he sat inside the PIAA-Tanaka's team motorhome, getting ready for the race he'd be starting in fourth position in the grid, he freaked out when he heard someone knocking on the door.

'It's us,' he heard Kyosuke say.

'Come in,' Akito replied feeling relieved to see his two best friends entering the motorhome.

'Hello there,' Seisuke said taking a seat next to Akito's black and white helmet.

'How are you doing?' Kyosuke asked deciding to remain standing up.

'Not too well, I'm so grateful you guys are here with me,' Akito commented in all honesty.

'Yeah, well,' Kyosuke said, 'we wouldn't have missed your first home race in any case but, with all that's been happening recently and since Ryoko couldn't come herself, we thought you'd need the extra support.'

'I do,' Akito admitted for, even if he didn't want to admit it in front of his parents, he was quite scared about the way the press was reacting to the whole thing: not even the PIAA-Tanaka's highly experienced press officer had been able to convince the journalists about the falsity of the article and the poor woman had been rushed off her feet trying to keep them away from their number one driver.

The result had been that Akito had had to literally hide during the whole time he wasn't inside his car for he found it rather disturbing the way they kept asking him about his biological mother. One of them had even had the guts to ask him if he listened to Mina-chan's old CD's. Akito had never felt any more disgusted in his whole life.

'Hey,' Takumi said entering the motorhome, 'are you ready?'

'Almost,' Akito replied as, taking his helmet and his gloves, he checked he had everything he needed.

'Put your helmet on,' Takumi advised.

'Yeah,' Kyosuke said, 'that's a good idea.'

Takumi held Akito's helmet while his son put on the fireproof balaclava and ensured that the whole suit was sealed properly then, taking his helmet back from Takumi, he put it on.

'Let me see,' Takumi said checking that the straps were properly tied up, 'okay,' he said, 'now we only need this,' he added as he took Akito's HANS device.

'You don't want me to put that on too, do you?' Akito asked with his voice sounding muffled because of the helmet.

'No, don't be silly. Now, let's go,' Takumi said and, they had only managed to make it half way to Akito's team's boxes when the eighteen year old stopped and said:

'Shoot, I left my phone in the motorhome!'

'So?' Takumi asked.

'Ryoko,' Akito replied, 'you know I always call her before the race.'

'Alright, I'll go and get it,' Takumi said but, just as he was about to go back on his footsteps, they saw three journalists making their way towards Akito, 'on second thoughts,' Takumi added, 'let's just get you to the boxes.'

Akito agreed with that for he really didn't want to see anymore journalists if he could help it but, even so, he still felt rather uneasy about not being able to speak to his girlfriend before he climbed into his car.

'She'll understand,' Kyosuke told him probably reading the worried expression in Akito's eyes and, as usual, nailing the younger man's thoughts with pinpoint precision.

'Yeah,' Akito said trying to nod even if it was difficult to do so with his helmet on.

Finally, they arrived at the boxes where, thankfully enough, the team's mechanics had already finished getting the car ready so, the minute Akito stepped into the garage, he went straight into the car.

'How's he doing?' Tanaka-san, the team's manager, asked Takumi.

'He's alright,' Takumi replied.

'Good. This is a very important race and I'd like to get a good result,' Tanaka-san explained, 'Fujiwara-san, you know our main sponsor's a Japanese company and they'd like to see your son back on the podium.'

'I know,' Takumi said.

Half an hour later, and as semaphore turned green, all twenty six cars took off with Akito holding steadily on to his four place as he cleared the first of the tight corners the Suzuka circuit was famous for.

'This is great!' Seisuke exclaimed enthusiastically, 'we should watch Akito's races from the circuit more often.'

'Yeah, we should,' Kyosuke agreed while thinking of poor Ryoko who right now was watching the race in their house with the rest of the Takahashi family.

'Guys, come here,' Takumi said talking to Ryosuke's sons and pointing at a screen from which they could all watch Akito's progressions, together with several figures representing the car's current speed, gear and a diagram with the brake/throttle ratio.

Ten laps later, and with Akito already in third position, he was driving along one of the circuit's main straights going as fast as his car's engine could go when the car in front of him seemed to lose a part of its front wing.

This would have probably meant nothing to Akito, had he been fully concentrated on the race but, being as he was not, the eighteen year old failed to dodge the piece of debris which laid in the middle of the track and, as he drove over it, he punctured one of his rear tyres.

What Takumi, Kyosuke and Seisuke saw next would remain engraved into their minds for the rest of their lives as they watched Akito's car lifting off the tarmac, crashing back down and capsizing several times until, after what seemed like an eternity, what little was left of the car came to a stop crashing one last time against the circuit's outer wall.

Takumi felt that his heart stopped when he saw that his son didn't even try to get out of the semi-destroyed cockpit. Instead, Akito sat inside it looking completely inert.

_To be continued…_


	25. Chapter Twenty Four

**Programmed Lives – Fifth Stage**

_Chapter Twenty Four_

Even though she knew that it was useless she did so, Ryoko still had her mobile phone clutched in her slightly shaky hands as she watched her boyfriend starting the race from his fourth position on the grid.

If she was usually rather nervous seeing all those horribly fast cars driving so close to Akito's even faster one as they all fought to get through an impossibly narrow space, for this race Ryoko was even more anxious for she had not received Akito's customary phone call.

'Maybe he's forgotten, you know, with all that's happening to the Fujiwaras,' her mother had said, hoping to make her daughter feel a bit better while Ryoko tried to convince herself that it was probably just that, her boyfriend had just forgot to call her.

It didn't work.

As the race went on, Ryoko only got more and more nervous and by the time the car in first position crossed the finish line to start what was the tenth lap out of forty nine, Ryoko had a gut feeling which was clearly trying to warn her that something terrible was about to happen.

'Mum…' she started, looking at her mother, surprised to hear how very strained her voice sounded, 'I'm…'

'Oh no,' Ryosuke muttered and that made her gaze back at the TV screen where everybody in the room saw as the car in second position lost a portion of his front wing.

'Watch out!' Keisuke exclaimed as though as he was talking to his future son in law who, instead of veering towards either side to avoid the piece of debris, he just drove straight onto it.

Then, all five Takahashi saw as after a horrific series of crashes, Akito's car finally came to a stop and the eighteen year old remained immobile still strapped into the badly damaged cockpit looking clearly unconscious.

Ryoko didn't listen, see nor notice any of the reactions from either her parents nor her aunt and uncle for she had a ringing sound in her ears which prevented her from hearing anything else except her own frantic heartbeat.

She felt her throat constrict so painfully that she thought she'd suffocate to death and, by the time she managed to do anything, she just slid off the couch and onto her knees as she literally crawled towards the TV where she put her hand onto the screen, right where the camera was showing Akito's destroyed car.

'He's not moving, he's not moving,' she repeated as she felt the first two tears crossing her cheeks, 'why isn't he moving?' she asked desperately.

'Baby…' Kyoko said but it was obvious that Ryoko wasn't listening to anybody.

'HE'S NOT MOVING!' Ryoko cried hysterically and, quickly losing control of herself, she screamed, 'SOMEBODY HELP HIM! PLEASE!'

Akiko and Ryosuke exchanged a quick look and that was all they needed to get into motion: Ryosuke pulled his phone out of his pocket as he pressed the autodial button to call his older son and Akiko rushed towards Ryoko.

Meanwhile Keisuke remained frozen on the couch watching as, predictably enough, the race director stopped the race so they could get the medical staff to where Akito was. Kyoko just stared at her daughter who was still kneeling in front of the TV sobbing very loudly.

'Ryoko,' Akiko said putting her hand on her niece's trembling shoulder then, seeing that she wasn't getting any reaction from her, the doctor started shaking her, 'Ryoko, come on…'

The girl looked up at her and Akiko had to repress a gasp seeing the amount of raw pain Ryoko had in her eyes.

'Baby, come here, ' Akiko whispered as she tried to pull up the girl. Not an easy thing to do, considering the fact that Akiko was of a much smaller built than her niece and that Ryoko wasn't cooperating at all.

'Auntie, he's not moving,' she sobbed.

'I know, your uncle's taking care of this,' Akiko said as she half carried the girl towards the couch.

'Kyosuke, it's me,' Ryosuke said as he finally got hold of his son.

'Dad, it was horrible,' Ryosuke heard his son's very worried sounding voice, say.

'I know, we've seen it too,' Ryosuke replied, 'where's Takumi?'

'Seisuke and I are following him to the circuit's clinic, they're taking Akito there,' Kyosuke replied.

'Okay,' Ryosuke said, 'tell Takumi to get the medical staff to ferry Akito by helicopter to the Arakawa Hospital, your mother and I will be waiting for him there. Tell him to say that we'll take care of any expenses not covered by the insurance.'

'Got it,' Kyosuke said.

With that, he finished the conversation and, looking around the room, he started issuing orders:

'Keisuke, I'll need you to go to the Fujiwara's to pick Natsuki and Haruko up, they've probably seen the accident too and I don't think Natsuki will be fit to drive anything right now, while you're at it, try to find out where Fujiwara-san is too.'

'Sure,' Keisuke nodded.

'Kyoko, you and Ryoko will follow us to the hospital in your car.'

'Okay,' Kyoko said nodding too.

'Akiko…' he started.

'Got it,' she said and, as usual, Ryosuke realised that he didn't have to speak to her for she already knew what he wanted from her and, with this, the five Takahashi left their house and, climbing into their respective cars, they all drove to their pre-agreed destinations.

Meanwhile, back at the circuit, Takumi was having trouble to stay focused on what the doctor was telling him when Kyosuke explained to both of them what his father had said. The circuit's doctor, hearing the name of such an important medical organisation, he said:

'It'll be done…'

Fifteen minutes later, and when the circuit's medial staff were certain the still unconscious Akito was stable enough to cope with the journey, they put him into the helicopter and, with Takumi accompanying him, they took off and headed towards Maebashi.

The two Takahashi brothers ran towards the car park where Kyosuke got into his RZ-1 as Seisuke felt extremely weird climbing into Akito's V-86. It had been very lucky that they had decided to take only two cars to the circuit for, this way, they could bring both of them back to Gunma.

'Ready?' Seisuke heard his brother say over the car's radio channel.

'Yes. Aniki…'

'I know, let's floor it,' Kyosuke said as they started the cars' engines and drove them out of the circuit as fast as they could.

If it usually was very hard to keep up with Kyosuke when he was driving seriously, with Seisuke driving a car he'd never driven before things were considerably more difficult. He had to admit it though, the V-86 was a great car and, even though it wasn't as agile as his own RZ-1, Seisuke found that the car adapted itself to his aggressive driving style rather well. Again, this car was used to Akito's driving which was nothing short of suicidal, especially during the races.

Akito.

Seisuke took a deep, steadying breath as his brain replayed the whole succession of crashes. He'd never been as scared, truly and absolutely terrified, as he was now: Akito had to be okay. He had to. There was no way his best friend could die…

'No!' Seisuke heard himself say.

'Seisuke?' he then heard Kyosuke ask.

'Aniki…'

'He'll be fine.'

'I don't know,' Seisuke said.

'Did you understand what the doctor was telling to Takumi-san?' Kyosuke asked his voice losing a bit of his usual firmness.

'Yes,' Seisuke replied, 'he said that there's a haemorrhage…'

'A what?' Kyosuke asked.

'Internal bleeding,' Seisuke explained, 'Akito was still unconscious as they loaded him into the helicopter and, Aniki, that's not a very good sign.'

'Dad will be able to fix him up, you'll see,' Kyosuke said while trying to convince himself too.

'I hope so,' Seisuke said.

'Let's just drive, okay?' Kyosuke suggested for this conversation was beginning to disturb him. Then, he remembered that their cousin Ryoko had probably seen the crash too and, getting even more worried, Kyosuke increased his car's speed so he and Seisuke could cover the over four hundred kilometres that separated them from Gunma's capital city in the shortest time possible.

Two and a half hours later, Kyosuke and Seisuke parked the cars in the staff car park in one of the hospitals their parents managed and, without exchanging a word, the two of them ran to the hospital's main entrance.

'Hello, I'm…' Kyosuke started.

'I know who you are Takahashi-san,' the nurse said, 'your parents are in the fourth floor, Ward B.'

'Okay,' Kyosuke said, 'thank you.'

When they finally got to the Ward B's waiting room, the two Takahashi brothers saw their uncle holding an utterly distraught Ryoko in his arms while Kyoko was doing her best to comfort an equally distressed Natsuki.

Bunta was talking to his granddaughter, probably trying to keep her distracted from all that was going on around her.

'Hey,' Seisuke said hoping to get his uncle's attention.

'Where's…' Kyosuke started.

'Your parents are operating him as we speak,' Keisuke replied, 'Takumi's there too because he simply refuses to leave Akito's side.'

This made Ryoko restart crying silently.

'I'll go and see if I can help with something,' Seisuke said and as he walked back out of the room, Kyosuke watched his brother amazed to see him, for the first time, acting like the doctor he was about to become.

Five minutes later, someone else came into the room and Kyosuke recognised him as Akito's team manager Tanaka-san.

'Any news?' Tanaka-san asked, skipping any pleasantries.

'No, not yet,' Kyosuke replied.

'I see…' Tanaka-san said as he took a seat nearby.

Then, except for the occasional sniffling coming from either Natsuki or Ryoko, they all remained in complete silence for a while until, after an indeterminate period of time, they saw a very tired looking Akiko step into the room.

Her arrival made everyone stand up and that made Akiko want to take a step backwards. Instead, she prepared herself for what she needed to say getting ready to deal with their potentially negative reaction.

'Akito's suffered a major trauma and that has caused, among other things, a very severe internal bleeding and the fracture of his right wrist and collarbone. We've managed to stop the bleeding and to stabilise him so, right now, he should be out of danger…'

Everyone let out a sigh of relief.

'However,' Akiko continued and, for some reason, no one liked her tone of voice, 'he's in a coma and we don't know when he'll wake up from it.'

Ryoko would have fallen onto the floor as she collapsed had it not been because her father still had the quick reflexes he'd honed during his days as professional driver. Akiko noticed that Natsuki didn't take the news much better as she too fell back onto her chair and she started crying again feeling horribly guilty for, in her opinion, this was all her fault.

'Mum, what's wrong with Oniichan?' a very distressed Haruko asked making Akiko hurry towards the little girl then, crouching next to her, the doctor held one of her tiny hands in hers and said:

'Sweetie, your brother is sleeping very soundly and we can't wake him up until he does it on his own.'

'Why is mum crying?' Haruko asked and, before Akiko could reply, Natsuki gathered enough strength to look at her daughter and, wiping the tears off her face, she said:

'I'm crying because I'm happy to hear that Akito's going to be okay.'

'Ah,' Haruko gasped obviously buying her mother's white lie.

'Okay,' Akiko said as she got up, 'you can all follow me so I can take you to where you'll be able to see Akito.'

'Haruko,' Bunta said as everyone got up to follow Akiko, 'why don't we stay here?'

'Grandpa…'

'I mean,' the old man said, 'if he's just sleeping, what's to be seen? Eh?'

The little girl looked at him and, nodding, she said:

'You're right.'

'Of course I am,' Bunta said making Keisuke and Kyosuke shake their heads as they stifled what would have been a highly inappropriate chuckle then, as they all walked out of the room, Tanaka-san went to Akiko and asked:

'How long do you think he's going to be…'

'You're Akito's team manager, aren't you?' Akiko asked.

'Yes, I am, I need to know…'

'Look,' Akiko replied not liking the calculating look she could see in the man's eyes, 'like I said, we don't know when Akito will wake up and, whenever he does, we'll have to see if he's fit to get behind the wheel.'

'Ah, I see,' Tanaka-san said and Akiko felt that her famous temper was about to explode.

'I should hope that you only have Akito's best interests at heart and that you're praying so that he gets well soon.'

'Of course,' Tanaka-san hurried to say.

'Because if I even suspect that you're only here to see if he can still race for your team,' Akiko said in her most serious tone of voice, 'I'll get security to kick you out of the premises so fast that you won't see the floor under your feet.'

With that, Akiko walked to where her relatives and Natsuki were still waiting for her and, when they finally made it to the room where Akito was, they saw Ryosuke there issuing a few instructions to two of his subordinates while Seisuke listened carefully to what his father was saying.

'Nurse,' Ryosuke said talking to a middle-aged woman who stood nearby, 'please, open the window's blind so they can see him.'

'Of course,' the nurse said and pressing a button from a panel next to her, making the blind slide up revealing the inside of Akito's room.

Through the glass everyone saw Akito lying in bed with a heavy looking cast covering his right upper limb which was kept hoisted up. He also had several machines connected to him that monitored his heartbeat and brain activity. They also saw Takumi sitting next to him holding his son's left hand.

'It's a very good thing Haruko's not seeing this,' Kyoko muttered talking to no one in particular.

'That was probably the reason why Bunta didn't want her to come with us,' Natsuki replied suddenly feeling a wave of gratitude towards her always wise and smart father in law.

'I want to go in there,' they all heard Ryoko's shaky voice say.

'Okay,' Ryosuke said and despite the fact that, according to hospital regulations, only direct relatives could be with the patients from the ICU, in this case he was more than prepared to overlook the regulations,

'Natsuki, come on in,' he added as Ryoko entered the room.

'No,' the woman said shaking her head, 'I don't want to, I don't…I just…' she continued as she started crying again.

'Don't be silly,' Akiko said, 'you're his mother and I'm sure he'll want to see you when he wakes up.'

'But…'

'In you go,' Akiko ordered her as she started to push her towards the room's door then, as soon as Natsuki and Ryoko had joined Takumi by Akito's bedside, Tanaka-san walked towards Ryosuke and, ignoring Akiko's glare, the man said:

'Doctor, I need a straight answer: when will I have my driver back behind the wheel?'

Ryosuke looked at the man and, even though he hated to admit it, having been a team manager himself, he understood the position Tanaka-san found himself in so, for this reason, Ryosuke decided to answer to the man's question.

'I haven't had the heart to say this to his father yet but, even if Akito were to wake up today, I don't think he'd be able to race for at least two to three months.'

Tanaka-san stared at Ryosuke for a bit while his brain was probably calculating the number of races three months represented and, with a sigh, he lowered his head and looked at the floor.

'I see…'

'You'll wait for him, won't you?' Kyosuke asked.

Tanaka-san looked back up at Kyosuke and, slowly, he shook his head no.

'WHAT?' Seisuke shouted.

'I'm sorry,' Tanaka-san said as he looked over at Akiko who seemed like she was about to explode, 'I've got a business to run and I need a driver who can race for my team.'

'But he's won two races for you!' Kyosuke exclaimed.

'Kyosuke,' Keisuke said, 'he's right…'

'Uncle Keisuke!' Seisuke exclaimed, 'you can't possibly agree with him!'

'I'm really sorry,' Tanaka-san said, 'Akito's an exceptionally talented driver and I'll hate having to get someone else to replace him but, I don't really have any other choice.'

'Tell us you're not doing this because of the scandal,' Kyoko demanded getting almost as upset as her two nephews were.

'Well,' Tanaka-san said, 'that's not a decisive factor but, to be honest, I think that it's the scandal which has caused for Akito to have his accident. I think it'll do him good to stay away from the circuits until he and his family sort out all their problems. I'm truly sorry and I really hope he gets well soon.'

With that, and before Akiko could actually kick him out of the hospital, he turned round and started walking away from them.

This single action could not have made it any clearer:

Akito's GP2 season was over.

_To be continued…_


	26. Chapter Twenty Five

**Programmed Lives – Fifth Stage**

_Chapter Twenty Five_

Takumi and Ryoko were in one of their quiet moments when neither of them spoke as they just stared at Akito's handsome face which, even though it looked peaceful enough, Ryoko knew that he wasn't just sleeping as Aunt Akiko had told Haruko. Instead, he'd been in a coma for ten days already, ten long days hoping that he would open his eyes and would speak to them.

Ten days of seeing that hope crushed as Akito's conditions did not change which, in a way, it was a good thing: at least he was still alive. Ryoko felt like crying for the umpteenth time but she knew that if she tried to do so, no more tears would come out from her eyes for, she believed, she had already used up a lifetime quota of them.

'You know,' Takumi said all of the sudden, 'I remember when Akito was a baby and I used to watch him sleep…'

'My dad did the same thing with me,' Ryoko commented looking at Akito's father.

'I know,' Takumi said offering the girl a tiny smile, 'he used to be sleepy all the time because of it…'

Ryoko laughed softly at that.

'Do you know that Akito would wake up if I left the room?' Takumi asked and, without waiting for her answer, he added, 'I wish it were this easy now…'

'Me too,' Ryoko whispered as she returned her gaze to her boyfriend's face.

'I'm going to wake Natsuki up,' Takumi said looking at his watch realising that his wife had already been asleep for over two hours.

'You want me to go?' Ryoko offered.

'No,' Takumi said getting up, 'I'll do it, I think he prefers holding your hand rather than mine…'

Ryoko smiled at her future father in law.

'Do you want anything to drink?' Takumi asked as he opened the door.

'No, thank you,' Ryoko said then, hearing the door shut after Akito's father, she looked back at her boyfriend and stared at him for a few moments before lifting his hand off the mattress so she could kiss it then, she whispered, 'baby, I really need you to wake up. I can't spend another day without talking to you.'

She stopped feeling the familiar constriction in her throat.

'Please, just wake up so we know you're okay,' Ryoko said putting her boyfriend's hand back down without letting go of it then, with her free hand, she started stroking Akito's face, removing a strand of fringe which had fallen onto his forehead. This made her remember that he had told her that he needed to get his hair cut and that he'd do that right after the race.

The race which had almost cost him his life, which had also ended his hopes to win the GP2 title that year for he had told her in secret that he really wanted to win the championship.

'Baby…' she whispered and, for the briefest moment, she thought she'd seen his eyes flicker. She shook her head thinking that maybe the nurses, and her own parents were right: she really needed to get eight hours of continued sleep instead of the ten minutes dozes she allowed herself every now and then.

Then, and just as Akito's parents stepped into the room, she saw it again: Akito's eyelashes definitely trembled.

'Akito?' Ryoko said, getting up from her chair so she could get closer to his face.

'What's up?' Takumi said rushing towards the bed, dropping two cans of soda he had in his hands.

'I…' Ryoko started saying but then, very slowly at first, probably needing to adjust to the light, Akito's eyelids started moving up, 'baby…' she whispered frantically praying for all that was holy that this wasn't just a hallucination provoked by her lack of sleep.

Then Takumi, Natsuki and Ryoko heard a very low grunt coming from Akito's throat.

'Son,' Takumi whispered, talking from the other side of Akito's bed. This produced yet another grunt, a slightly louder one. Then Akito's eyes finally opened and, to Ryoko's immense delight, remained that way as he was clearly trying to focus on something.

Another grunt came out from his throat as he found his girlfriend's face and clearly recognising her, he tried to curve his lips into a smile.

'Baby,' Ryoko whispered and as she felt her eyes get moist again, she realised that she'd been wrong about her tears.

'I'll go and get Ryosuke,' Natsuki said running back out of the room but Ryoko hadn't even heard her for she had every single brain cell busy coping with the fact that Akito had, at long last, woken up from the coma.

She saw as he tried to lick his dry lips with an even drier tongue and, doing as she'd been instructed by her aunt, she went to the room's small fridge where they kept a few ice chips and, taking a few of them in a plastic cup, she went back to the bed and placed a small one on Akito's lips who drank the small portion of water looking at her gratefully.

'Akito,' Ryoko said with a horribly strained voice as she tried to contain the tears provoked by the intense joy she was feeling and all the accumulated anxiety she'd been bottling up in these ten days of uncertainty.

'Good morning,' Ryosuke said talking to Akito as he entered the room.

Akito only managed to flick his eyes towards the newcomer.

'Do you remember what happened?' Ryosuke asked as he started checking the data on the monitors.

Akito shook his head no and that made everyone look at him then, Ryosuke sat down next to him and proceeded to explain to the eighteen year old the reason why he was at the hospital and everything they had done in order to keep him alive. For the kid's sake, Ryosuke decided to leave out the part where his team manager had decided to replace him since, in any case, Akito would probably figure it all out on his own anyway.

Meanwhile, in the small apartment Kizuna lived in Maebashi, Kyosuke was preparing her a cup of soup so his girlfriend would get something to eat.

'I can do that,' he heard her say and the effort made her start coughing again.

'Hey,' Kyosuke started, 'what in the heck are you doing up?'

'I feel better now,' Kizuna insisted.

'Yeah, right, off to bed, now,' Kyosuke ordered as he finished slicing the two toasts he'd prepared too.

'Geez,' Kizuna said before walking back to her bedroom with Kyosuke following her carrying a tray in his hands. The truth of the matter was that he needed to do something which would make him feel useful and, trying to help his girlfriend recover from the very violent flu which had prevented her from coming with them to Akito's race was the best thing he could do right now.

Akito. Every time he thought of his best friend Kyosuke felt his stomach fold onto itself.

'Hey, is that for me?' Kizuna asked taking him out of his reverie.

'Yeah,' Kyosuke replied as he set the tray on Kizuna's extremely well organised desk.

'You were thinking of Akito again, weren't you?' Kizuna asked.

'Yeah,' Kyosuke replied, 'I just wish you hadn't watched the accident on your own.'

'Kyosuke, I…that should be the last of your worries right now,' Kizuna said.

'Yes but…' Kyosuke started.

'Kyosuke, this really has nothing to do with the accident which killed my father,' Kizuna said, 'to start with, Akito's still alive, isn't he?'

'Yes, he is,' Kyosuke replied feeling grateful for that.

'Besides,' Kizuna continued, 'when I saw what happened to Akito, the images of my father's crash were the last thing which crossed my mind, believe me.'

'Still, I just wish I had been here with you,' Kyosuke said sitting on Kizuna's bed and placing the cup of soup onto the small bedside table.

'Yeah,' Kizuna said, 'this way it'd be the two of us recovering from the flu, how very romantic.'

Kyosuke laughed at that and was about to say something when he heard his mobile phone's ring, pulling it out of his pocket, he saw that it was his younger brother.

'Seisuke,' he said answering it and, as he listened to him, Kyosuke's face started lightening up in happiness, 'yeah, I'm on my way there too, let's meet up at the car park, okay?'

A second later, Kyosuke put his phone back into the pocket of his trousers.

'Akito's awake?' Kizuna asked hopefully.

'Yes, I'm sorry…you mind if I?'

'Of course not silly,' Kizuna replied, 'like I said, I'm really feeling much better now,' then, as she started coughing right after saying that, Kyosuke gave her a knowing look.

'Go away,' Kizuna said with feigned annoyance then, getting serious, she added, 'tell Akito I'll go to visit him as soon as I can.'

'I will,' Kyosuke and, bending down to kiss her forehead, he got up from the bed and walked towards the small apartment's door.

At the same time the two Takahashi brothers hurried to the hospital, Akito fought with himself to gather the energy and the courage he needed to ask the following question:

'Can I race again?'

Ryoko looked at him first then her gaze moved up to her uncle's face.

'It's still too soon to tell but I think you should be able to, eventually, get back into a racing car,' Ryosuke said and, seeing that they could no longer avoid the subject, he looked at Takumi and Natsuki.

'Son,' Takumi started, 'as you know, you're going to need at least a couple of months to recover and…'

'I'm out of the team,' Akito stated and the effort made him feel extraordinarily tired.

'Son, I…' Takumi started, seeing that his son was fighting with all his might to keep his composure.

'Can I have a minute?' Akito asked trying to make his voice sound a little bit stronger, failing miserably.

'Of course,' Takumi replied and as he, Ryosuke and Ryoko got up to leave the room, he didn't let go of Ryoko's hand.

'Please, stay,' he begged her.

Ryosuke exchanged yet another look with Akito's parents who, nodding, decided to walk out of the room leaving the two teenagers alone.

'I'll quit,' Akito commented dejectedly.

'What?' Ryoko asked unable to believe her ears.

'It's what you've always wanted,' Akito replied, making his longest sentence yet.

'Akito,' Ryoko said after staring at her boyfriend for a few moments, 'I felt like I was dying when I saw you crash your car and I've been dying a bit every day you didn't wake up from the coma.'

Akito just looked at her thinking to himself that only this was a good enough reason for him to quit racing.

'But,' Ryoko continued, 'now that you're awake, I know that there's nothing which will prevent you from jumping into your car the minute you can.'

'Ryoko…' he started seeing that his girlfriend was crying.

'Baby,' she said, 'this is who you are. You're a racer and I knew that when I started dating you. I don't think I'll ever get used to the fear I feel when I see you race but, I love you and I am prepared to cope with that too.'

'But…'

'I'm just so happy you're awake!' Ryoko cried.

'Come here,' Akito whispered and, with that Ryoko, being careful not to hurt him, hugged him as tightly as possible.

'This is the best medicine for him,' Ryosuke commented as all three adults observed the scene through the room's window.

'I agree,' Takumi commented and, as he looked at him, Ryosuke couldn't help but to notice that the younger man's face had suddenly brightened up.

'He's going to be okay,' Ryosuke said, 'we still have to run some tests to make sure his brain didn't suffer any damage but, from what I can see, beside the understandable loss of his memory regarding the accident, he seems to remember everyone and everything.'

'I was afraid he wouldn't remember us,' Natsuki confessed.

'Me too,' Ryosuke admitted, 'we should see a very quick improvement from now on, just make sure he gets loads of rest.'

Takumi and Natsuki nodded to that.

'Ah,' Ryosuke said, 'don't tell him about your job, I don't think he can cope with any more bad news at the moment…'

Both Natsuki and Takumi agreed to that too for, right now, the last thing Akito needed to know was that Natsuki had been suspended indefinitely from her job at the school.

'I'll go and call your father so he brings Haruko here,' Natsuki said and, as she walked away with her mobile phone in her hand. Ryosuke also made his way back to his office from where he would order all the tests they needed to do on Akito.

Takumi walked back into the room as Ryoko was trying to kiss Akito. He cleared his throat rather loudly and that made the girl pull back and sit back down on her chair.

'Sorry,' she muttered getting really red on her face.

About ten minutes later, Kyosuke and Seisuke entered the room with huge smiles on their faces.

'Hey man! You're finally back!' Seisuke exclaimed as he sat down on Akito's bed making him wince, 'oops, sorry…'

Akito just shook his head trying to seem annoyed but, in reality, he was very happy to see his two best friends there.

'Kizuna sends her love,' Kyosuke said.

'Is she better?' Akito asked still trying to make his voice sound stronger, still failing miserably.

'Yes,' Kyosuke said, 'how are you?' he added.

'Great,' Akito replied managing to sound very sarcastic.

'I see, well, this will cheer you up,' Seisuke said, 'Junya's trying to form a team to claim ownership of Mt Akina…'

'What?' Akito asked.

'Yeah, can you believe it? I mean, Akina's been your family's home turf for three generations!' Seisuke exclaimed.

Akito shook his head in profound disbelief.

'He also said he wanted to challenge you to a race down Mt Akina but…' Kyosuke started.

'He's found out about your accident and he's prepared to wait until you recover,' Seisuke finished.

'Thanks,' Akito muttered bitterly.

'Guys,' Ryoko said, 'let's not talk about racing just yet, shall we? He still needs to get back on his feet.'

The three young men looked at her and, nodding, Kyosuke said:

'She's right.'

Then they all remained quiet again realising that, if they didn't talk about cars or racing, there weren't many more topics of conversation left. Thankfully, they were all saved by the arrival of Akito's younger sister Haruko who, being finally allowed to see her big brother, jumped onto his bed making him wince again.

'Hey,' he complained at the same time than giving her a smile.

'You're such a sleepyhead,' Haruko complained too as she settled down on the edge of her brother's bed. This made Akito look at her confusedly, 'you've been sleeping for ten days!' the girl explained and that made Akito smile again.

'Sorry,' Akito said.

'What's that?' Haruko asked pointing at the cast which still covered her brother's arm and shoulder.

'Baby,' Natsuki started, 'your brother's broken the bones here and here,' she explained pointing at Haruko's right wrist and collarbone.

'Ouch, that sucks,' Haruko said, 'but he'll be able to race again, won't he?' she asked.

'Yes, of course he will,' Takumi said.

'Then everything's okay,' the girl stated and her candour made everyone in the room, including Akito, laugh.

A couple of days later Akito was transferred into another room out of the ICU where he could finally receive non-relative visitors. The nurses were surprised to see the amount of people who kept coming to see the young man: Itsuki, Iketani and Kenji with their families, the whole of the Golden Arrows, including Kizuna who had finally recovered from the flu and several ex-schoolmates. Not to mention the amount of stuff he kept getting sent from his numerous fans.

'If he keeps getting so many presents sent to him we're going to need to move him into a bigger room,' one of the nurses commented to Akiko as they saw yet another group of Akito's friends leaving the young man's room.

'He's a popular kid,' Akiko said proudly and she had never been happier to see one of her patients get better as quickly as Akito was doing. If he carried on like that, he could very well be out of the hospital by the end of the month.

'Happy birthday, Haruko,' Akito said on the morning of April 12th as he handed her a present Natsuki had bought for him to give to his sister.

'You didn't buy this one either, did you?' Haruko said as she took the bag from her brother's hands.

'He never does,' Ryoko said shaking her head but smiling as she did so.

'Hey,' Akito complained, 'I've got a good excuse this time.'

They all laughed at that then they saw Keisuke entering the room followed by Akito's parents.

'Dad,' Ryoko started, fearing that her father was there to tell her to go back home now that Akito was awake for it was true that she had been living non stop at the hospital for two whole weeks.

'Akito,' Takumi spoke instead, 'Keisuke here wants to speak to you.'

'Okay,' Akito said as he felt the old fear for his girlfriend's father coming back. Keisuke sat down on a chair next to his daughter and, looking very serious, he said:

'As you know by now, the PIAA-Tanaka team has recruited a new driver to replace you.'

'Yeah, I know that,' Akito said flatly.

'Right, well,' Keisuke said, 'your father and I have been discussing this and, I think I can offer you some sort of alternative.'

'Alternative?' Akito asked.

'Yes, well, I know this may not sound so good, after all, you were only a step away from F1 and, what I have in mind takes you a couple of steps backward.'

'What is it Keisuke-san?' Akito asked not really able to sustain so much suspense.

'What would you say if I asked you to help me setting up an F3 team?' Keisuke asked.

_To be continued…_


	27. Chapter Twenty Six

**Programmed Lives – Fifth Stage**

_Chapter Twenty Six_

Doctors Akiko and Ryosuke Takahashi allowed Akito to leave the hospital six weeks after he had crashed his Dallara at the second round of the GP2 season and only after they had done every single test available to make sure there was absolutely nothing wrong with him.

'About bloody time,' Akito said as he bypassed the wheelchair the nurse had ready to take him out of his room and into the car park.

'Excuse me,' the nurse said trying to get Akito to seat on it.

'Ma'am,' Akito started, 'the only reason I would ever use one of these is if my legs ever stop working.'

With that, he just walked out of the room with his girlfriend and his parents following him.

'Sorry about that,' Takumi said as he picked up Akito's bag, 'he can be a bit stubborn.'

Look who's talking, Natsuki thought as she too smiled apologetically at the poor nurse.

Meanwhile, Akito had already called the elevator for he had never been any more eager to get home.

'You shouldn't use your right hand yet,' Ryoko reminded him.

'It's alright, it doesn't hurt anymore, it's just a bit stiff, that's all…' he said as he rotated his fist to prove his point. This movement made his shoulder crack making him remember that whereas his wrist was indeed fully healed, his collarbone was not.

They had had to insert a titanium nail in it in order to keep it stuck to the shoulder's articulation and, because of this, the healing process had been a bit slower than usual and now, despite the fact that he no longer had any heavy cast which would prevent him from using his arm at all, he still had to be very careful and lifting it up was absolutely out of the question.

'You hurt yourself just now, didn't you?' Ryoko asked frowning at him.

'Only a bit, but it's alright,' Akito replied rubbing his shoulder with his left hand.

'No it's not,' Ryoko said, 'when I broke my knee's ligaments I had to go through a lot of rehabilitation in order to be able to ice skate again. Your right arm is the one you use the most on the steering wheel, you should make sure it heals properly or you won't be able to race ever again…'

Akito looked at her and, knowing that she was right, he nodded.

'Okay, I'll be careful, I promise.'

'Good.'

Right then, Akito's parents arrived with the hospital's discharge papers and all four of them got onto the elevator which would take them to the car park where they all got onboard Natsuki's Micra. It was kind of funny seeing Takumi driving the small car, even though Akito knew that his father could probably make it drift if he wanted to.

About an hour later, they parked the car outside the Fujiwara's garage and, getting into the house…

'SURPRISE!' Itsuki exclaimed.

'Welcome home!' Haruko said running towards her older brother followed by their grandfather Bunta.

'Hey, guys…' Akito started, trying to hide the fact that he was getting very emotional seeing all three Ex-Lonely Drivers and their families, Kyosuke with his girlfriend Kizuna, Seisuke and the rest of the Golden Arrows and, of course, Ryosuke, Akiko, Keisuke and Kyoko.

'It's good to be home, isn't it?' Bunta said passing an arm around Akito's shoulders, frowning as he noticed his grandson flinching a bit, 'you're okay?' the old man asked.

'Yeah,' Akito replied trying to convince himself too, 'I guess it's just some reflex thing…' he added.

'I guess,' Bunta said not sounding very convinced and Akito saw that his grandfather was probably making himself a mental note to discuss this with him later. Luckily, the old man let his grandson have fun at the welcome home party Haruko and Ryoko had insisted in organising.

'Have you thought of my proposal?' Akito heard Keisuke ask as the eighteen year old was getting up to go to the kitchen.

'Yeah,' Akito replied, 'I'll give you my answer shortly. I need to do something first…'

Keisuke looked at him for a bit then, slowly, he nodded.

'Sure, take your time,' the younger of the original set of Takahashi brothers said and, with this, Akito walked to the kitchen so he could get some more Coke. As he arrived there, he heard a couple of feminine voices talking and, for some unknown reason, he stopped before he could be seen.

'When are you going to tell him?' that was Ryoko's mum speaking.

'Not yet,' he then heard his own mother say, 'it's too soon: he just got home and the last thing he needs to know is that I've been suspended…'

'WHAT?' Akito shouted as he rushed into the room.

'Akito…' Natsuki breathed as she and Kyoko walked towards him.

'When were you going to tell me?' Akito asked sounding as hurt as he felt.

'Baby, it's just that…'

'Your parents thought you had enough to deal with as it was,' Kyoko explained seeing that Natsuki had trouble finding the right words.

'That's right,' Akito agreed, 'still, I would have liked to be informed…'

'Why?' Natsuki asked, 'I mean, it's just like your father said: this is our problem and we've got to fix it.'

'Yes,' Kyoko said, 'Akito, I should think you have your own issues right now…'

Once more, he agreed with that for it was true that he still had to figure out what he would do now that he'd finished high school and that he no longer had his racing job.

'What are you going to do?' Akito asked.

'Don't worry about that,' Natsuki replied, 'the headmaster told me that the suspension is only until the gossip calms down, after that, I'm probably going to be readmitted on some sort of probation…'

'PROBATION?' Akito shouted, 'Mum, you've working there for over thirteen years, they can't put you on probation!'

'Baby, that's how it normally works,' Natsuki explained and, as she went to put her hand on his right shoulder, he moved away instinctively, 'are you okay?' the woman asked frowning at him worriedly.

'Yeah,' Akito said, 'I don't know why I keep doing this…' he added sounding quite concerned.

'It's normal,' Kyoko said, 'I remember that after Keisuke's broken ankle had healed, at first he seemed reluctant to use it because he probably feared that he would hurt himself again.'

'Yeah, that's probably it,' Akito agreed, 'at least it's just my shoulder. I would hate it if I had broken my legs or something…'

'So would I,' Natsuki said and, for the first time in years, she tousled Akito's hair, 'you need to get a haircut,' she added noticing how long Akito's hair had grown for his fringe fell all the way down to his cheeks.

'I don't know,' Akito said, 'Ryoko likes it like this,' he added as he passed his hand through the whole length of dark and straight hair.

'Oh well, if she does then it's alright,' Natsuki teased him as she and Kyoko laughed softly.

'Okay, I'm going to get some Coke and go,' Akito said hoping to run away from the two laughing women as fast as possible.

That same evening, and after everyone had gone to their respective homes, Akito walked into the living room where his father was sitting on the couch with Natsuki and Haruko.

'Dad,' he said sitting on one of the armchairs, 'are you busy?'

'Obviously not,' Takumi replied looking at his son, 'why?'

'I need your help with something…' Akito replied and, noticing the curious looks his mother and sister were giving him, he got back up from the armchair and added, 'please, let's go outside.'

'Okay,' Takumi said getting up from the sofa and following his son to the front door then, noticing Akito was grabbing his car's keys, he said, 'Akito, what are you doing?'

'Dad,' he said as he put his shoes on, 'I need to so something and I need to do it tonight.'

'You're not thinking of driving, are you?' Takumi asked.

'That's exactly what I want to do,' Akito replied as he finished doing up the laces of his trainers with quite a lot of difficulty considering he couldn't use his right arm very much.

'Akito, you can't drive yet, Ryosuke said…'

'Dad, I know that,' Akito said looking at his father with the same expression Minami used to get Takumi to do whatever she wanted, 'I just need you to take the V-86 up Mt Akina for me so I can check something up.'

Takumi looked at his son for a bit and, as usual, that expression worked for, sitting down next to his son, he started putting his shoes on too.

'Natsuki!' he then shouted from the house's entrance, 'Akito and I are going out for a while.'

'Okay,' they then heard Natsuki say.

'Can I come with you?' they also heard Haruko ask.

'Sorry baby, not tonight,' Takumi replied and both he and Akito smiled at each other hearing Haruko's protests and knowing that it would be Natsuki's job to deal with them.

A few minutes later, and with Takumi driving the V-86 up the Mt Akina pass, drifting the car in a way that made Akito gasp, the eighteen year old said:

'Dad, thank you.'

'Oh it's nothing,' Takumi replied, 'I kind of fancied a drive anyway, even though I would have preferred driving my AE86.'

'No,' Akito said, 'that's not it. I'm thanking you for not asking me to quit racing. I know how very worried you and Mum have been…'

'Son,' Takumi started, 'do you remember the promise you made me when I allowed you to start racing?'

'Yes,' Akito replied.

'Are you still having fun when you race?' Takumi asked.

'Yes,' Akito repeated.

'Then, as long as you have fun and you don't think this is all too much for you, I'll let you race.'

'Thanks.'

'Besides, who am I to ask you to quit racing?' Takumi added, 'it is true that I almost died when I saw you crash your car and I simply don't know what I would do if…you know…'

'Dad…'

'You're the only thing I have left from your mother, you know, your real mother,' Takumi continued, 'and even though racing is dangerous, your real mother would probably agree with me thinking that, as long as it makes you happy, then it's okay for us to cope with the risks racing brings with it.'

'Dad,' Akito said and, hesitating for just a second, he asked, 'you still miss her?'

'Just a bit,' Takumi replied honestly, 'but it's been a long time and, right now, I've got a whole family to take care of.'

'I see,' Akito said, 'you know, all those questions the journalists asked me about her have made me quite curious and…'

'Akito,' Takumi said, 'if you have any questions regarding your real mother, please ask them to me.'

'I will,' Akito said and, seeing his father stop the car made him realise that they were already at the small parking space where all the races in Mt Akina started from.

'So, what do you want to do?'

'Let's switch places,' Akito said.

'Akito, you can't drive…'

'Please Dad, I just need to test something,' Akito begged.

'Okay,' Takumi replied as he got out of the car while Akito was doing the same then, since this was the first time Akito sat behind the steering wheel of his car since the accident, he took a few instants to get used to it, 'it feels good, doesn't it?' he heard his father ask.

'Yeah,' Akito whispered and as he went to place his hands on the wheel, his shoulder cracked audibly.

'Ouch,' Takumi said looking at his son worriedly, 'are you sure you want to drive?'

'Yeah,' Akito repeated and, pressing the clutch, he inserted the first gear, released the handbrake then he pressed the accelerator as he let go of the clutch making the car go forward. He then made a three point turn and got the car to face downhill.

'Akito?' Takumi asked.

'I need to do this,' Akito replied and, taking a deep breath, he started accelerating while trying to get the car at the speed he usually went when racing.

'Okay,' Takumi said and then he observed his son as he tried to negotiate the first corner of the course, frowning and biting his lower lip as he saw that his kid had a lot of trouble turning the steering wheel. Takumi got even more worried as he felt Akito braking violently in order to prevent the car from crashing against the guardrail.

'Shit,' Akito said with a very frustrated tone of voice as he hit the steering wheel with his left hand before moving it to cover his face with it.

'Akito…'

'It's too painful,' Akito said with his voice sounding muffled because of his hand.

'Akito, it's also too soon,' Takumi reminded him, 'you need to give yourself some time.'

'I can't,' Akito said removing his hand from his face so he could look at his father, 'if I don't start driving as soon as possible I…'

'You're afraid you'll get out of practice?' Takumi asked.

'No,' Akito replied and, since it was his father who he was talking to, he decided to be honest, 'I'm afraid I'll be too scared to drive fast again…'

'What?' Takumi asked now sounding definitely worried.

'Dad, I…'

'You're scared of the speed?' Takumi asked and, very slowly, Akito nodded, 'wow.'

'Tell me about it,' Akito said, 'I need to overcome this,' he added pointing at his shoulder, 'and I need to work on my concentration too so I don't have any more stupid accidents like the one I had in Suzuka.'

Takumi felt as the frown on his face relaxed: seeing the determination on his son's face made him realise that whereas his son was understandably afraid of driving fast, he was also very much resolute to get over that fact so he could, once again, be the fabulous driver he'd become in his many years of active racing.

'Let's try again,' Takumi proposed.

'Okay,' Akito said.

'Only that, this time, we'll do it differently,' Takumi added, 'let's just pretend this is a Gumtape Deathmatch.'

'A what?' Akito asked.

'A Gumtape Deathmatch,' Takumi repeated, 'you know, where you tape your hand to the wheel so you can't move it…'

Akito looked at his father and, understanding at once what his father meant, he smiled and said:

'That's an excellent idea, this way I won't have to move my arm so much.'

'Of course it's an excellent idea,' Takumi said using the arrogant tone of voice which had made Bunta Fujiwara so famous. Akito laughed softly at that.

'Okay, let's do it,' Akito said.

'Ah, not so fast,' Takumi said, 'for this you'll need a special technique I'll teach you tonight…'

By the time both men got back home, Natsuki and Haruko had been in bed for several hours but Akito had never been happier in his whole life. Using the technique his father had just taught him, he had managed to make it down Mt Akina in more or less the same time he used when driving normally.

'Dad,' he said as he went to open the door of his bedroom and as Takumi made his way to the room he shared with Natsuki.

'Yes?' his father asked without turning round.

'Thank you very much.'

'No problem,' Takumi said.

'Dad,' Akito repeated.

'Yes?' Takumi said, this time facing his son.

'I'm very lucky to have you as a father.'

With that, Akito got into his bedroom leaving an absurdly moved Takumi standing there, feeling too emotional to remember that he had to go to bed.

The next day, Akito got up very early in the morning and, even before going to eat his breakfast, he took his mobile phone from his bedside table and dialled Kyosuke's number.

'Hello?' he heard the older Takahashi brother say.

'Hi, I'm sorry I'm calling so early,' Akito started.

'Oh, don't worry,' Kyosuke said, 'Kizuna and I have to go the centre this morning so you didn't wake me up.'

'Ah, okay,' Akito said, 'listen, can you contact Junya?'

'What for?' Kyosuke asked sounding suddenly confused.

'Because I want to take up his challenge,' Akito replied.

'What?' Kyosuke asked, 'Akito…'

'Next Saturday, ten pm,' Akito said, ignoring Kyosuke's worried tone of voice.

'Akito, it's too soon…you…'

'Please, Kyosuke,' Akito begged, 'next Saturday, ten pm,' he insisted.

'But…'

'Thanks Kyosuke,' Akito said and, without giving his friend time to argue, he pressed the button to finish the call.

_To be continued…_


	28. Chapter Twenty Seven

**Programmed Lives – Fifth Stage**

_Chapter Twenty Seven_

Organising an illegal street race without getting caught by the authorities was difficult enough but, organising it without the parental units knowing about it was a whole lot more complicated. Especially if said parental units had been street racers too.

For this reason Akito was happy that his father was still at the centre on Saturday evening as he and Ryoko prepared themselves to leave the Fujiwara residence.

'Are you sure you don't want me to come with you?' Natsuki asked.

'No,' Akito said, 'Ryoko here is going to be driving the V-86 up to the summit. I'll just practice for a bit and then we'll come back home.'

'Okay,' Natsuki said, 'be careful and don't over do it: you know you're not supposed to be driving yet.'

'Yeah, I know, don't worry,' Akito said and, as he and Ryoko walked to his car, the girl commented:

'You know, I'm a bit worried.'

'Don't be, I'll be okay,' Akito assured her.

'No,' Ryoko said, 'I'm worried about how easy it is for you to lie to your mother. It makes me wonder.'

'Ryoko,' Akito started, pausing so he could look at her, 'I wasn't lying: you are going to drive my car to Mt Akina and for me, this race is practice.'

Ryoko snorted as she looked at him with a disbelieving expression on her beautiful face.

'Ryoko, I wouldn't lie to you, ever,' Akito said looking very serious and seeing this made her say:

'I know.'

'Good,' Akito said as he climbed into the passenger seat of his V-86 while thinking that he could never get used to seeing things from this perspective. Ten minutes later, Ryoko parked the Toyota next to her cousins RZ-1s and, climbing out of the car, she asked to her boyfriend:

'How did I do?'

'Great, considering you've never driven it before…'

'Thanks,' Ryoko said smiling happily, 'but, to be honest, I prefer my convertible, it's a lot…'

'Smaller?' Seisuke said teasingly.

'I was going to say agile, idiot,' Ryoko said getting annoyed.

'Guys,' Kyosuke interrupted, 'let's head up, Kizuna and the guys are waiting for us there.'

'Yeah,' Akito agreed as he and Ryoko climbed back into the V-86, this time with Akito getting behind the steering wheel.

'Are you sure you're going to be okay?' Kyosuke asked him.

'Yeah, I just have to be careful and use the technique my father's taught me,' Akito replied.

'Okay, Seisuke will follow you two in his car, in case you need his help.'

'What? No way…' Akito protested.

'Look,' Kyosuke said, 'I'm your team leader, and if you don't accept this condition, I'm not letting you race, got it?'

Akito looked at his friend and, noticing the unusually harsh tone Kyosuke was using convinced Akito that the older Takahashi brother was seriously worried about him.

'Fine,' Akito said, 'but don't tell Junya I'm still injured, I don't want him to do me any favours…'

'Don't worry,' Seisuke said, 'we won't tell him. You just be very careful, okay?'

'Stop it you two!' Akito complained and then, hoping to lighten up the general mood, he joked, 'I don't think I look good wearing the hospital's sleeping gown so, I have no intentions whatsoever of going back to one.'

'You better not!' Ryoko exclaimed obviously failing to see the humorous side of it. This made Akito start the V-86's engine and, seeing the two Takahashi brothers get into their RZ-1s, he made his way up to Mt Akina's summit where, as Kyosuke had said, the whole of the Golden Arrows were waiting for their three top drivers.

'Hey man,' Eiji said seeing Akito climb out of his car, 'it's good to see you back in the Panda.'

'Don't call it that,' Akito complained but, since he was so happy to back with the gang, he didn't even bother taking offence.

'Anyway,' Kizuna said looking at him with the same concerned look her boyfriend had, 'be careful, okay?'

'Guys, stop telling me to be careful, you're going to bring me bad luck!' he exclaimed.

'That's right,' they all heard Junya say, ' because you're going to need all the good luck in the world if you're hoping to beat me.'

'Junya, there's no need to be this nasty,' Kizuna admonished him.

'He can't help it,' Masato said angrily, 'he's just that much of an asshole.'

'Say that again!' Junya shouted walking up to Masato and putting his face just a couple of centimetres away from his ex team-mate's.

'ENOUGH!' Kyosuke roared, startling everyone for they had never heard his team leader raise his voice so much.

'Aniki's right,' Seisuke said, 'let's just race, okay?'

'Yeah,' Akito agreed as he noticed that Ryoko was getting quite freaked out by the whole thing. Thankfully, Junya decided to be reasonable and pulling himself apart from Masato, he made his way to where Akito was and said:

'I know you've just been discharged from the hospital but I'm not going to do you any favours.'

'I hope you're not,' Akito countered.

'Good,' Junya said, 'you remember what's at stake here, don't you?'

'Yeah, if I lose, Mt Akina's yours,' Akito replied.

'Exactly,' Junya said.

'But if I win,' Akito continued, 'you'll have to do anything I ask you.'

Junya looked a bit taken aback by the younger man's boldness but, recovering quickly, he snorted and said:

'Hell, why not?'

'One more thing,' Kyosuke said, 'Seisuke will be the referee for this race. He's going to follow you two to make sure the race is fair.'

'No way,' Junya said, 'he's not impartial.'

'It's either that or there's no race,' Kyosuke insisted and, seeing as he had no other option, Junya decided to agree with that condition too.

'Okay,' he said and, with that, he walked up to where Shinji was and, handing his jacket to the younger man, he climbed into his light blue Nismo-tuned Nissan.

'Beat the crap out of him,' Ryoko said to Akito as he prepared himself to get into his V-86.

'Okay,' Akito said laughing softly at the unusually aggressive expression he saw in his girlfriend's face.

'And be careful,' she couldn't help but to add and, this time, Akito didn't get annoyed because he knew that this was just part of their pre-race ritual.

'I will be,' he replied then, slowly so he wouldn't hurt himself, he fastened his four point racing seatbelt and starting the V-86's engine, he drove it towards Junya's car, parking it right next to it then, they saw as Seisuke placed his RZ-1 immediately behind them.

Shinji acted as the countdown man and as he heard him shout 'go', remembering what it was like to have Junya's car near him, Akito decided to floor it so he would get ahead of the older man then, as he made it through the first corner, he felt very grateful to both his father, for having taught him such a useful technique and to Seisuke, for having applied some Chinese anti-inflammatory ointment on his shoulder before carefully bandaging it.

I can do this, Akito thought as he entered the second of the Akina's course curves, turning the steering wheel just a couple of centimetres, distributing the weight in a way that made the back of the car over steer so much that it was the car itself which turned without the assistance of its driver.

Akito's only job, as his father had instructed him, was to make sure he got the car under his control on time to avoid hitting the barrier but, for this, he barely needed to touch the steering wheel for it was just a question of doing the right pedal work balancing the use of the brake and the throttle.

An easy enough thing to do once one knew how to do it. He had to give credit to his father for Akito knew that his old man had mastered this technique right in the middle of a race and without any kind of previous practice.

He was a freaking genius, Akito thought proudly as he entered the fourth corner of the course.

'How's he doing?' Kyosuke asked his brother, using the private channel which communicated the two RZ-1s.

'He's doing fantastic,' Seisuke replied as he followed Junya's Nissan, noticing with pleasure that the guy had every bit as much trouble as he had following Akito's V-86.

'Really?' Kyosuke asked.

'Yeah,' Seisuke replied, 'I swear Aniki, that punk's never going to cease to surprise us…'

Kyosuke laughed softly before saying:

'I hope he never will: it's one of the things I like the most about him.'

It was Seisuke's turn to chuckle then, he said:

'Now, don't distract me, these two are getting freakingly serious about this race.'

The three cars had almost made it to the five consecutive hairpins when Akito saw something that had definitely not been there when he'd driven uphill: a rock had fallen right in the middle of the road making Akito have to steer incredibly hard in order to dodge it.

Unfortunately for him, that made him have to lift his right arm and move it sideways to the left. The crack which followed was definitely not healthy.

'Crap,' Akito breathed as he felt the pain coming back at an alarmingly fast rate. He swallowed as he released the steering wheel for just a brief second so he could make the muscles of his stomach relax. Then, letting out a shaky breath he forced himself to get an equally trembling right hand to grab the bottom section of the steering wheel.

'Okay,' he muttered as he realised that, whereas his right arm was almost entirely useless, he still had a fully functional left arm. He only needed to make sure his right hand could hold the steering wheel while the left one was busy changing gears.

He also noticed two other things which he could consider positive: one, Junya had almost driven over the rock, making him brake rather brusquely and that had caused the gap between his V-86 and the Nissan to increase. Two, he was definitely not scared of the high speed he was driving at.

'Are you okay?' Akito heard Seisuke's worried voice ask.

'Yeah,' Akito replied and, technically speaking, he wasn't lying.

Negotiating the five hairpins with only one hand while the pain in his shoulder worsened as the race went on made Akito sweat like he'd never done in his life, not even during the GP2 races when the fireproof racing suit and the helmet made him feel like if he were in a sauna and, by the time he cleared the fifth one, he was very grateful to see the first lights of the city which indicated that the goal was nearer.

Sadly, so was Junya's Nissan, Akito thought miserably as he stole a quick look at his rear view mirror, noticing that, indeed the S-18 was a whole lot closer than it had been during the hairpin section.

'Shit,' Akito said and, deciding to forget about the pain, he floored the accelerator and drove the last sector of the course as though as his arm was okay. He knew that he would pay for it later but, right now, he didn't care.

By the time he crossed the finish line, always heading the race, Akito felt a couple of tears burning in his eyes and he felt so warm that he believed he was running a bit of temperature too.

'Hey, are you okay?' Seisuke asked sounding a bit out of breath for he had jumped out of his car and ran towards Akito's the minute all three vehicles had stopped.

'No,' Akito replied with a very weak sounding voice.

'Shit,' Seisuke said, 'let me help you get out of here,' he added as he opened the V-86's door and started unfastening Akito's seatbelt, 'man you look really bad.'

'Thanks,' Akito said as he took Seisuke's hand with his left one so he could climb out of the car.

'What the fuck's wrong with him?' Junya asked as he walked towards the Toyota.

'He's still injured, you moron,' Seisuke spat.

'What?' Junya asked widening his eyes in surprise, 'and you raced me anyway?'

'Yeah,' Akito said damning himself for how very feeble his voice sounded.

'Why?' Junya asked.

'Because, unlike you, he's a real racer!' Seisuke hissed angrily.

'Seisuke,' Akito said shaking his head, 'leave it. I've won the race.'

'Yeah, you have,' Junya agreed miserably, 'so, what do you want me to do? Do I have to be your slave or something like that?'

'No,' Akito replied, 'I just want you and Shinji to get back in the team and for you to stop being such a baby.'

'What?' Seisuke asked voicing the very same question Junya was about to ask, 'are you serious?' he added.

'Yeah,' Akito said, 'I'd really like to have Junya and Shinji back in the team, if your brother agrees, of course…'

'I don't know what to say,' Junya said still unable to believe his ears.

'You don't have any say in the matter,' Akito reminded him, 'you've lost the race so you've got to stick to your end of the deal.'

'Akito, we've got to get you to a hospital,' Seisuke said noticing the unhealthy way Akito was sweating.

'No, no more hospitals, please,' Akito begged, 'whatever I need done, you can do it yourself, can't you?'

Seisuke looked at him and, nodding, he said:

'Yeah, just wait for me here, I'll go and get my bag.'

'Sure,' Akito agreed as he went down to sit onto the ground using the bodywork of his car as backrest while covering his right shoulder with his left hand.

'You're crazy, did you know that?' Junya asked.

'Yeah, it runs in the family,' Akito replied tiredly.

Junya laughed softly and then, getting very serious, he said:

'Sorry about everything. I've been an ass…'

'Yes, you have,' Akito agreed mercilessly and that made Junya chuckle again.

'Let's start again, okay? My name is Shimano Junya. I'm from Maebashi.'

Akito looked up at the hand Junya was offering him and, taking it with his left one, he smiled cheekily before saying:

'I'm Fujiwara Akito, from Shibukawa, best downhiller in the whole of Gunma.'

Then both he and Junya shook hands while the latter gave him an incredulous look but, judging by the way the older guy was smiling, Akito knew that for the two of them this was indeed a whole new beginning.

Two days later, it was May 20th, Kizuna's twenty second birthday and since her family from the US had not been able to visit her and since they had a huge, parent-free house, Kyosuke decided to organise a small party for her using the large garden at the Takahashi residence.

'We could use the pool too,' Ryoko said seeing that despite the fact that it was late in the afternoon, the temperature was still warm enough for them to take a dip at the oval-shaped pool the Takahashi's had in their garden.

'That's a great idea,' Seisuke said as he helped his older brother carrying bottles from the kitchen out to the garden, 'Ryoko, how come you're not with Akito?' he added as an afterthought.

'Oh,' she said, 'he desperately needs some rest and, let's face it, if I'm there…'

'Yeah,' Seisuke said, 'I get the picture.'

'So do I and it's a rather disturbing one,' Kyosuke complained as he made his way back into the house which, soon enough, filled itself with friends and members of the Golden Arrows, including Junya and Shinji who, after much pressure and persuasion from Akito's side, had been reinstated as members of the team.

Seisuke was walking towards the kitchen to go and get some more plastic cups when he saw someone he hadn't seen in a while stepping into the Takahashi's hall.

'What in the…' he said and forgetting about the cups, he walked towards the entrance and with a very dry tone of voice, he asked, 'what in the heck are you doing in my house?'

'I was invited by Kizuna,' Misa replied with an equally harsh tone of voice.

'Is that right?' Seisuke asked sardonically and before Misa could reply, Kizuna came running towards them.

'Misa! How good of you to come, let me show you the way to the garden…'

'Happy birthday sweetie,' Misa said smiling at Kizuna and, ignoring the way Seisuke was glaring at her, she bypassed him pretending he wasn't even there.

'Whoa,' Seisuke muttered and realising that he was getting out of control dangerously fast, he took a couple of steadying breaths before following the two girls out to the garden.

There he saw something even more disturbing: Misa had just removed her summer dress and she stood there wearing such a ridiculously small bikini that made Seisuke run back into the house.

'Hey, are you okay?' Kyosuke said as he saw him rushing past.

'What's Kizuna playing at inviting her here?' Seisuke whispered furiously pointing at a nearly naked Misa.

'It's her birthday, she can invite whoever she wants,' Kyosuke pointed out then, after hesitating for a bit, he suggested, 'maybe you could use this chance to straighten things with her.'

'What?' Seisuke asked.

'You still haven't talked to her properly since New Year's,' Kyosuke reminded him, 'I think you two need to sort things out.'

Seisuke looked at his older brother for a bit before nodding once.

'You're right: I'm going to talk to her.'

_To be continued…_


	29. Chapter Twenty Eight

**Programmed Lives – Fifth Stage**

_Chapter Twenty Eight_

Kyosuke saw as his younger brother made his way to the garden, walking purposely towards the girl who seemed to be capable of making Seisuke lose control of himself in a way he had never seen Seisuke do in the lifetime Kyosuke had known his brother.

'Hey,' Seisuke said as he tapped Misa on her shoulder and getting some sort of electric shock from that brief contact.

'Oh, it's you,' Misa replied disdainfully.

'Yeah, listen…' Seisuke started, refusing to let her dry tone dent his resolution. However and seeing the curious looks Masato and Izawa were giving him, he added, 'can we go somewhere else so we can talk?'

'No,' Misa replied flatly then, ignoring him in the most absolute way, she smiled at the two other guys and said, 'shall we go for a swim?'

Without waiting for an answer, she left the drink she had in her hands on top of a nearby table and she walked towards the swimming pool allowing Seisuke to see that she looked every bit as good from that point of view as she did looking at her frontally.

'Misa…' he started but, just as he was going to lift his foot so he could go after her, she jumped into the swimming pool, 'fuck,' he muttered.

'Er…' he then heard Masato say as he and Izawa walked past him heading to the pool too, 'is that okay if we…you know?'

'Hell,' Seisuke barked, 'do whatever you want, it's not like if she listens to me anyway.'

With that, he made his way back into the house not remembering a time when he'd been anymore frustrated in his whole life.

'How did it…' Kyosuke started.

'Shut up,' Seisuke spat as he decided to ignore the whole party and go up to his room so he could lock himself in it. Women were definitely too much trouble, he thought as he threw himself onto his bed and, as he stared at the ceiling, he decided to fall asleep so he would stop thinking of Misa and that stupid strap of fabric she called bikini. Honestly, she could have been wearing a string of dental floss and she would have been more modestly dressed.

After spending an hour turning around on his bed and since his brain simply refused to shut down, he finally gave up trying to fall asleep and sat up on the bed as passed his right hand through his short locks of dark hair.

'Fuck this, I'm going to talk to her even if it's the last thing I do today,' he said talking to himself getting up from his bed then, he stepped out of his room and started walking down the corridor and towards the stairs when he saw her, no longer wearing the bikini but a strappy top and a denim miniskirt.

'What are you…'

He stopped seeing the frightened expression which she wasn't fast enough to hide from him.

'Look,' she said, still trying to pretend indifference, 'your cousin took me to a guest room so I could get changed and I got lost, this is why I hate big houses.'

'Misa…'

'Don't worry, I'll get out of your way as soon as I find the way to the stairs,' Misa said and in the split second she used to turn round, Seisuke's brain made a decision and before he even had time to register it he found himself walking the three steps which separated him from her and taking her by her arm, he slammed her against one of the corridor's walls pinning her against it with his own body.

'No,' Seisuke said looking down at her face which now was just a few centimetres away from his, 'you aren't getting away from me again.'

'What?' Misa breathed looking at him with a mix of fear and profound disbelief, 'if I'm not mistaken it was YOU who got away from ME,' she added and, for the first time, she allowed him to hear how very upset she was by it all.

'Misa,' he started but seeing the hurt in her beautiful eyes was too much for him, 'screw this, you're too good looking for my own good.'

With that he bent his head down and, before she could do anything to prevent it, he crushed her lips with his fuelling the kiss with all the frustration he'd been bottling up ever since they had had sex that New Years' eve, over four and a half long months ago.

'What…' she whispered when he let go of her lips to go and kiss her on her neck, 'Seisuke…' she added as she desperately tried to grasp to whatever they had left of their sanity.

'Shush,' he said as he continued to kiss her then, without letting go of her, he took her in his arms and started walking back to his room.

'Seisuke!' she exclaimed as she tried to make him stop, 'I thought you wanted to talk to me.'

'Yeah,' he said, 'later,' he added with a very husky voice.

'No!' she cried and then she tried to get back down on the floor, 'Seisuke we can't do this.'

'Why not?' Seisuke asked as he finally allowed her to stand up again, 'I want you Misa,' he finally admitted, 'I want you more than I've ever wanted any other girl in my whole life.'

'Seisuke, please,' she started, looking very much like she was fighting with herself for she obviously wanted him as badly as he wanted her, 'we do need to talk about this.'

Seisuke looked at her and after a few instants, he said, 'okay, you win,' he then pointed towards his bedroom's door and added, 'this way.'

'Promise to me that we'll talk first,' Misa said refusing to move from where she was.

'I promise I'll be a good boy, okay?' Seisuke replied lifting his right hand crossing his heart with his index finger, 'cross my heart and yadda, yadda, yadda…'

Misa's lips finally curved into a smile and, shaking her head, she said:

'You're amazing.'

'I know,' Seisuke said looking all smug and, for some reason, Misa suspected that he actually believed that but, again, his strong, self-confident personality was one of the aspects she liked the most about him. Not to mention that, from what she could remember, he was incredibly funny.

Following him into this room, she took a seat on the swivelling black leather chair Seisuke used for his lengthy studying sessions while he sat on his bed, leaving a considerable distance between the two for her own sake, Seisuke thought as he forced himself to keep his word.

'So, what is it that you wanted to talk to me about?' she asked him.

Clearing his throat, he looked hesitant for just a second before saying:

'Firstly, I wanted to apologise to you for, you know…everything…'

'Okay,' she said, 'apology accepted.'

'Then I wanted to ask you why didn't you tell me that you were a…you know…'

'A virgin?' Misa supplied and, when he nodded to that, she looked away from him and, with a small voice, she said, 'you didn't ask me.'

'What?' he asked incredulously, 'Misa, I don't go around asking girls if they're virgins, you know.'

'I know it's just that...I just thought that you…that you wouldn't consider me…you know…'

'I don't know what you're talking about,' Seisuke said getting all confused.

'Look, you are so incredibly smart and good looking and you probably have enough self esteem to supply an entire country with it,' Misa said, 'I just didn't think you'd spare me a second look if you knew I had never kissed a guy before.'

'What?' Seisuke asked and, with that question he was expressing his surprise at how stupid that reasoning of hers was and the fact that, in addition to her virginity, he had also stolen her very first kiss. Things just kept getting better and better, he thought miserably.

'And when you left the morning after I just…I thought you'd just had fun with me and that you didn't want to see me ever again.'

'Misa,' Seisuke started and he had to give to her that that was exactly what it had looked like, 'I freaked out,' he admitted, 'I didn't know what to do when I found out that that had been your first time.'

'Why?' Misa asked and, seeing that he didn't have any other option left, he decided to be honest:

'That night, at the party, I had just recently broken up with my girlfriend of three years.'

'I know that, Ryoko told me about what she did to you,' Misa said, 'that's why I was so surprised, and hurt when I saw you kissing her at that motor sports centre your family own.'

'No,' Seisuke said, 'I wasn't kissing her. She was kissing me,' he explained for it was very important she understood the difference.

'You didn't get back together after that?' Misa asked.

'No way!' Seisuke exclaimed, 'she cheated on me, I can't forgive her for what she did.'

'I see,' Misa said, 'so, what do you want from me?' she asked and realising that it was pretty obvious, she added, 'besides that.'

This time it was Seisuke who looked away as he considered his answer very carefully then, just as Misa was about to get up to leave the room, he glanced back at her and said:

'I'm not sure of what I want, I just know that when I see you I lose it and I…I just don't know what to do.'

Misa scratched what she had thought about his self confidence as she saw that he could be every bit as insecure as she was.

'I have a suggestion,' Misa said, deciding to throw caution out of the window.

'Let's hear it,' Seisuke said.

'Let's just take things slowly and see where this takes us.'

Seisuke stared at her and, seeing how serious she was about this, he nodded his approval.

'Okay, but you'll have to be very patient with me.'

'Seisuke,' she said, 'I've been waiting for over four months so we could have this conversation. I think I can be patient, don't you?' she asked and, seeing him nod, she got up from the chair and she walked back to the door.

'Where are you going?' Seisuke said feeling slightly panicky for he really wanted her to be in bed with him right that instant.

'I'm going downstairs, if I can find the stairs that is.'

'But…' Seisuke started.

'Seisuke, we're taking things slowly, remember?' she reminded him as she opened the door.

'What?' he asked springing up from his bed and rushing towards her before she could get out of the room.

'Seisuke…'

'Okay, a kiss, just a kiss, please?' Seisuke said putting his hands together as if he was praying he then saw her rolling her eyes before she looked at him for a short while making him feel even more anxious. She then sighed as she nodded, apparently giving him her consent.

Very slowly, not wanting to scare her, he put his hands on either side of her face and he kissed her, a whole lot more delicately than he'd done earlier on.

'Ehem,' they heard a girl clearing her throat making them interrupt their kiss and as they looked outside of the room, they saw Ryoko standing there staring at them with a very amused expression on her face, 'and here I was worried that you had got lost,' she said.

'I did get lost,' Misa said returning the smile.

'Yeah, into my cousin's arms,' Ryoko laughed, 'good luck with that!' she exclaimed and, as she walked away from them, Seisuke said:

'Hey, don't spread the word just yet, we're taking things slowly.'

Ryoko gazed at them and raising her eyebrows looking even more amused, she nodded at them.

'I can see that,' she said sarcastically then, getting serious, she added, 'don't worry, my lips are sealed, at least for now.'

They then decided to follow her and the newborn couple re-joined the party looking a whole lot happier than they had left it however, before anyone could comment on this, Kyosuke saved them by saying:

'Okay, guys, I've got an announcement to make.'

'You and Kizuna are getting married!' Izawa exclaimed.

'Stupid, be quiet and listen,' Kizuna admonished him.

'Sorry,' Izawa apologised and then, once he was sure that everyone was paying attention to him, Kyosuke started again:

'Misa, you can keep a secret, can't you?' Kyosuke asked.

'Oh, she can, believe me,' Ryoko said giving both she and Seisuke a very sweet smile.

'Good,' Kyosuke said looking oblivious to the whole thing, 'well, you'll all be happy to know that the Golden Arrows have been invited to the gathering in Hakone. You know that it only takes place once a year and is organised for the best street racing teams from the Kanto region.'

'Wow! That's fantastic, Aniki!' Seisuke exclaimed.

'Yeah,' Kyosuke said allowing himself a smile, 'the gathering is next month so we don't have all that much time to train ourselves.'

'Will Akito be okay by then?' Junya asked, surprising everyone in the process.

'I hope so, we're going to need our best elements for that race,' Kyosuke replied.

'I agree,' Junya said.

'Anyway, we'll be organising training sessions twice a week from now on but, if any of you can't make it to the one during the weekdays, at least try to make it to the one during the weekend,' Kyosuke said.

'That's right,' Misa said intervening in the meeting, 'you're going to need all the training you can get.'

'You sound like you know a lot about this gathering,' Seisuke commented.

'I do,' Misa said, 'my brother killed himself crashing his car in one of the races,' she explained with so much nonchalance that it left Seisuke both stunned and speechless.

'That happened two years ago, didn't it?' Ryoko asked her and watching Misa nod to that made Seisuke feel even more astounded seeing that his baby cousin obviously knew about this and making him realise that he knew very little about Misa. He then made himself a mental note so he would find out all there was to know about her.

Meanwhile and instead of resting as he was supposed to, Akito was busy sitting at his desk and staring at his computer's screen when Takumi knocked on his door to ask him to come down for dinner.

'Give me a minute,' he said and, before he could turn the computer off, he heard his father opening the door and stepping into the room.

'What are you doing?' Takumi asked, 'you've been locked up in your room all day.'

'I'm resting,' Akito lied.

'Sitting at your desk?' Takumi asked disbelievingly, 'if you could help it, you didn't sit anywhere near your desk when you were in high school,' he added, 'do you want me to believe that you're all of a sudden into computers?'

'No,' Akito said and, dropping his act, he confessed, 'I'm looking for a job.'

Takumi's sarcastic smile was instantly replaced by a concerned frown.

'Why?'

'Dad,' Akito started, 'with Mum suspended until goodness knows when and with me not getting any more money from racing, you're the only income we have right now and…'

'Wait a minute,' Takumi interrupted him now getting seriously worried, 'Akito, I thought you wanted to accept Keisuke's proposal.'

'Yeah about that,' Akito said, 'I don't want to have to rely on him either.'

'Why not?' Takumi asked and, seeing that this conversation was going to be rather long, he took a seat on top of his son's bed.

'Because I already owe him big for letting me date his daughter,' Akito replied sounding so honest and serious that Takumi didn't even have the heart to take the mickey out of him.

'Son, you'll be working for him, it's natural that he pays you,' Takumi pointed out.

'Yeah,' Akito said, 'there's something else that's bothering me,' he added.

'What is it son?' Takumi asked.

'Well, I've been working on some figures and I think that I could actually bring some money into the whole project,' Akito explained.

'Why would you do that?'

'Dad,' Akito started, 'I know it may sound silly because I'm only eighteen years old but, if I am to be part of this project, I don't want to take any charity from them and I'd like to contribute to it as much as I can.'

'Akito,' Takumi said, 'you're already contributing towards it in the most important way that there is,' then, seeing the confused expression on Akito's face, he added, 'you're the driver son, without that, there's no racing team.'

'Yeah, I know,' Akito said, 'I only wanted to make an economic contribution too. I've seen it in many occasions when the drivers bring part of the capital into their teams.'

'Yes son,' Takumi said, 'but you don't need to be like them.'

'Dad…'

'Akito, you are good enough to deserve the money you got from Tanaka-san and the money you'll receive from Keisuke,' Takumi insisted.

'I still want to help!' Akito exclaimed getting up from his chair, 'Dad, I'm serious,' he added, using a more moderate tone of voice.

Takumi looked at him for a while and then, frowning once more, he got up and said:

'Fine, wait for me here.'

He then left the room and, a few moments later, Akito saw his father re-enter it with a blue envelope in his hand.

'Here, this is yours,' Takumi said giving it to his son who, looking more puzzled than ever started opening it, realising that the thing looked like it had been sealed ages ago.

'What's…'

'Read it and you'll see,' Takumi said then waited for Akito to pull out the paper which was inside the envelope and for him to finish reading the contents of the document.

'What the…'

'That's yours son,' Takumi said.

'Dad, this is…'

'This is the money your mother left us when she died,' Takumi explained, 'I've been keeping it for when you'd be old enough to decide what to do with it but it seems like you've already found a good use for some of it, haven't you?'

Akito remained completely speechless at the huge amount of money that, according to the document he had in his hands, was at his disposal as per whenever he needed it.

_To be continued…_


	30. Chapter Twenty Nine

**Programmed Lives – Fifth Stage**

_Chapter Twenty Nine _

About a week later and after having been informed about the gathering at Hakone by his girlfriend, a very resolute Akito entered the building where his future father in law had his office and, knocking on the door, he waited for an answer.

'Come in,' he heard Keisuke's deep voice say.

'Good morning,' Akito said as he stepped into the room.

'Oh, it's you,' Keisuke said offering him a smile and that kind of freaked Akito out because he still wasn't too used to having the much older man being so nice to him, 'come on in and take a seat,' Keisuke added pointing at one of the two chairs placed in front of his desk.

'I take you're here to give me an answer,' Keisuke said once Akito had sat down.

'Yes sir,' Akito replied, 'and my answer is a conditional yes.'

'Conditional?' Keisuke asked lifting his eyebrows in surprise.

'Yes, conditional because I don't agree with the idea of having us entering the F3 championship. I think we should aim for the GP2 instead.'

'You think so?' Keisuke said looking interested all of the sudden.

'Yes,' Akito said refusing to let Keisuke know how intimidated the man still managed to make him feel, 'I have been devising a plan which would allow us to get the budget and the infrastructure we would need in order to enter next year's championship.'

'Akito,' Keisuke said as he linked his hands, putting his elbows on top of his desk, 'what makes you think we haven't been thinking things through very carefully before we decided to start designing the car?'

'The fact that you didn't know I could contribute economically as the team's main sponsor,' Akito replied.

'Say that again?' Keisuke asked, looking, if possible, even more incredulous.

'Don't get me wrong,' Akito said, 'I know that you guys have heaps of money already, but I'm also pretty sure that running this centre isn't cheap and that your resources for this project are quite limited…'

Keisuke looked at his daughter's boyfriend getting more and more impressed by what the young man was saying.

'Okay,' he said, 'You've got my attention.'

Akito pulled a small black folder from his backpack and getting up from his chair, he walked towards Keisuke's desk opened the folder in front of him and showed him a detailed report which contained all the figures the young man had been working on.

'I've based this on what I learned while I was racing for the PIAA-Tanaka team,' Akito explained then, pointing at the bottom of a page, he said, 'this here is what we'd need to run the two cars.'

'Two cars?' Keisuke asked.

'Yeah, the one me and the other driver would drive,' Akito explained.

'Other driver?' Keisuke asked.

'Yeah, I've got someone in mind who I think will be perfect for the team,' Akito said.

'Hey, wait a minute, aren't you making a tad too many decisions? Last time I checked, I was the one managing this project,' Keisuke said getting a bit on the defensive side.

'Yes, of course,' Akito hurried to say, 'I'm just giving you a few suggestions, that's all.'

'Okay, bring him here for a test,' Keisuke said.

'Don't you want to know who he is?' Akito asked.

'No, I trust your judgement,' Keisuke replied shrugging his broad shoulders, 'now, let's hear the rest of your idea.'

'Well, for the budget I was thinking of having a small percentage of it provided by some of my old sponsors, another part by you guys and, the rest of it will be from the trust my biological mother left for me when she died.'

'W-what?' Keisuke stammered.

'Keisuke-san, you should know about this, after all, you were one of the witnesses who co-signed her will.'

'I know I was, it's just that…your father wasn't supposed to tell you until…'

'Until I would turn twenty, I know,' Akito said, 'he decided to tell me now because he knows how very important this project is for me.'

'Are you sure you want to spend some of that money in this project?' Keisuke asked.

'Yes,' Akito replied firmly, 'I wasn't too keen to use it but Dad said that if it helps me making my dreams come true, my real mother would probably be happy about it.'

'I see,' Keisuke said, 'okay, leave this with me,' he added pointing at the folder, 'I'll take a look at it and I'll let you know what I think.'

'O-okay,' Akito stuttered and since it was rather clear that he was being told to leave the room, he got up and said, 'have a nice day.'

'Same to you,' Keisuke said and, seeing the young man closing the door behind him, he picked up the phone and dialled a number, 'Hey Aniki,' he said, 'guess who's been here to discuss his ideas for the team,' there was a short pause then, he added, 'I'd say our plans are working rather nicely, don't you think so?'

That same evening Seisuke drove his white RZ-1 to Tochigi so he could pick Misa up for what it was going to be their first proper date ever and, as he pulled into the lane which led to the apartment block where the girl lived, he found her waiting for him near the entrance.

After greeting him with a peck on his cheek, she strapped herself onto the seat.

'So, where do you want to go? Seisuke asked.

'There's a really good restaurant in the city centre, we could go there…'

'Won't we need a reservation?' he asked.

'No, I know the owner,' Misa replied

'Okay,' Seisuke said, 'I'm going to need directions though,' he added with a sheepishly smile.

'That's fine,' Misa laughed, 'I'm actually very impressed that you've managed to get to my apartment.'

'Well, that's because I've been here before, you know?'

'Yeah, I know,' Misa said blushing quite a lot.

Feeling more awkward than ever, Seisuke decided to re-start his car's engine and, thanks to Misa's indications, they managed to make it to the city centre where they parked the RZ-1 then, as she climbed out of it, Misa couldn't help but to notice the admiring way quite a few people, especially the women, looked at the sports car and, even more intently, at its driver.

'What's so amusing?' Seisuke asked as he walked around his car to the pavement where a smiling Misa was waiting for him.

'Nothing,' Misa replied and, taking the arm he offered her, she felt quite good with herself seeing the jealous looks quite a few women awarded her with.

'Okay,' Seisuke said, 'by the way,' he added, 'that dress makes you look very nice.'

'Thank you,' Misa said and her smile got even wider seeing that the two hours she'd spent trying to decide what to wear had paid off.

'Is this it?' Seisuke asked as Misa stopped near what it looked like a very posh restaurant.

'Yes,' Misa replied, 'do you like it?'

'Yes, sure,' Seisuke said refraining himself from saying that he wasn't expecting for her to have such expensive tastes but, again, he didn't know all that much about her so maybe this was exactly the kind of thing she was used to.

They entered the restaurant and as soon as they stepped into the reception area, a plump middle aged man came rushing towards them.

'Misa-chan! What a surprise!' he said offering Misa a very kind looking smile.

'Hello Matsuro, how are you doing?' Misa asked as she bent down to kiss the man on his cheek making Seisuke frown for he wasn't too sure whether he liked her being quite so friendly with the guy.

'Oh, the usual, I saw your step-mother the other day, she's looking nastier than ever,' Matsuro commented winking his eye at her then, finally noticing Seisuke, he asked, 'who's this young man?'

'He's Takahashi Seisuke, he's my...' Misa started.

'I'm her date,' Seisuke finished for her.

'Oh, it's a pleasure to meet you,' Matsuro said offering his hand to Seisuke who shook it briefly as he gave the man a curt nod.

'Nice to meet you, too,' Seisuke said.

'Matsuro,' Misa started, 'do you think you could find us a table for two?'

'Of course,' Matsuro said, 'will the usual do?'

'Yes, please,' Misa replied.

'I'll get it ready for you, please sit down while you wait,' he said indicating two very comfortable looking armchairs which were nearby.

'You two seem to know each other rather well,' Seisuke commented as they took a seat while Matsuro went to get their table ready.

'Yeah, he knows me since I was born,' Misa replied sounding so vague that Seisuke was forced to say:

'He obviously knows your family too.'

'Yeah,' Misa said still seeming reluctant to speak too much about that.

'Misa…'

'Look,' Misa started, 'there isn't all that much to know: my father owns a law firm, my mother died when I was little and he re-married this horrible woman who, the minute my brother died, did her best so I would get out of her way too…'

Seisuke stared at her, taken aback by the girl's sudden display of bitterness but he couldn't say anything to that for, right at that moment, Matsuro came back asking them to follow him to the table.

Only after Matsuro had given them two copies of the menu and had offered them something to drink, Seisuke was able to ask:

'Is that the reason why you live on your own?'

'Yes,' Misa replied.

'And, I take you're studying law because you…'

'Seisuke, I'm studying law because, funnily enough, I actually like it.'

'Ah, okay,' Seisuke said then, after a few instants, he added, 'it's a bit like me then.'

'How so?' Misa asked.

'Well, someday I'll have to take over my family's hospitals but I decided to become a doctor because I love it. I've never considered doing anything else.'

'I see,' Misa said, 'it's the same for me: I used to help my father with his cases when I was a bit younger.'

'Why did you stop?' Seisuke asked.

'My brother died,' Misa replied, 'and my father buried himself in his work as he tried to get rid of his guilt for not having done anything to prevent it, forgetting that he had a daughter who was still alive.'

'You said your brother crashed his car during a race in the Hakone Pass,' Seisuke said trying to be as sensitive as possible, so she wouldn't think he was prying into her business.

'Yes,' Misa replied, 'he and our father had just had one of their usual arguments and my brother went off to a race he knew he wasn't ready for…'

Seisuke was going to say something but then a waiter came to take their orders but, since they hadn't actually looked at the menu, Seisuke really didn't know what to order. Seeing that made Misa ask him:

'Do you trust me?'

'Yes,' Seisuke replied and he was surprised to see that, for some odd reason, he actually trusted her with a lot more than just the choice of food.

'Okay,' she said then, looking at the waiter, she added, 'please bring us what I usually order.'

'Yes ma'am,' the waiter said and, with that, he left them alone once again.

'What did you get?' Seisuke asked.

'It's a surprise, you'll like it, or so I hope,' Misa replied smiling at him.

About twenty minutes later the waiter came back with a huge plate full of several kinds of meat, fried peppers and pineapple, roasted potatoes and boiled rice.

'What's this?' Seisuke asked.

'It's a typical Brazilian dish,' Misa replied, 'Matsuro's chef used to live there and he's simply fantastic.'

'It seems like you come here very often,' Seisuke commented.

'I used to, my brother and I came to eat here almost every evening,' Misa explained, 'it was a way to avoid being in the same stupidly big house with that gold-digging whore that is my step-mother.'

'I'm sorry to hear this,' shocked to hear the anger in her voice.

'It wasn't too bad because I had my brother,' Misa said with a sad expression.

'You two must have been very close,' Seisuke commented still trying to be very sensitive about it for he didn't want to make her cry. Instead, she smiled at him and said:

'We were and we got even closer when I became old enough to drive: I asked him to give me a few tips and he ended up teaching me everything he knew about driving.'

'I see,' Seisuke said feeling more and more attracted to her as the evening went by.

'You and your brother seem to be very close too,' Misa commented.

'We are, he's kind of like my best friend,' Seisuke replied.

'I thought your best friend was Akito-kun,' Misa said.

'Yeah, it's the three of us,' Seisuke explained grinning at her, 'we're like the three musketeers.'

'One for all and all for one?' Misa asked smiling back at him.

'Exactly,' Seisuke replied, 'we're always together, it's been like that since we were little.'

'Well, I guess it helps that both of your families are very close too,' Misa commented making Seisuke stare at her.

'You seem to know an awful lot about me,' Seisuke complained.

'Kizuna and Ryoko have told me a lot about you and your family,' Misa replied shrugging her shoulders.

'Ah, I see,' Seisuke said, 'I didn't know you guys had become such good friends.'

'We have,' Misa said, 'they've been really good to me, both of them. Especially Kizuna, she's taught me a lot about mechanics and about how to keep my car in the best condition.'

'Yeah,' Seisuke said, 'she's almost as good as Aniki when it comes to cars.'

'I still have loads to learn from her if I'm to become a really good street racer,' Misa commented.

'Why did you become one?' Seisuke asked, 'was it because of your brother?'

'In part, yes,' she replied, 'he got me into it but it was Kosugi who taught me everything I know. Kosugi was my brother's best friend,' she explained.

'Ah, I see,' Seisuke repeated and he had probably made a strange face for Misa looked at him and, smiling, she said:

'Kosugi's had a girlfriend for years.'

'What?' he asked looking suddenly confused, making Misa feel all flustered.

'No, it's just that…oh, forget it,' she said. Stupid, what makes you think he's jealous? She admonished herself silently.

'Your brother would be proud of you,' Seisuke commented all of a sudden, 'you're a really good driver.'

'You think so?' Misa asked.

'I know so,' Seisuke replied, 'even though I was driving like a madman, I still couldn't catch up with you that day on the motorway.'

'I was pretty upset that day,' Misa commented, speaking without thinking of what she was saying.

'So, you did see me,' Seisuke said frowning at her and seeing Misa nod to that, he added, 'you could have stopped, you know? I almost killed myself trying to get to you…'

'I'm sorry,' Misa said biting her lower lip, 'I…I just didn't want to face you…I thought that…I thought you'd tell me that it had all been a mistake and that you didn't want to see me again…'

'Actually,' Seisuke said getting atypically serious, 'if I had caught up with you that day, I was going to suggest you to do what we're doing right now.'

'Really?' Misa asked frowning at him.

'Yes,' he replied and Misa let out a very bitter sounding chuckle.

'We've wasted so much time being stupid,' Misa commented sounding very regretful about it.

'Yes, we have,' Seisuke agreed and the two of them just looked at each other for a while.

'You know what?' he asked all of a sudden as he took her hand over the table then, seeing her shake her head, he added, 'I really think we should forget all about taking things slowly.'

'I think so too,' Misa said with a very small voice.

'Yeah, it was a very bad idea,' Seisuke said giving her his best smile.

Misa put her left hand over the one Seisuke was using to hold her right one and, this way, they seemed to reach some sort of unspoken agreement.

They spent the rest of the meal talking about trivial things and laughing at the jokes Seisuke kept telling her then, after they finished their meal, he drove Misa back to her home parking his car next to her V37.

'Seisuke, do you want to...' she said as she put her hand on the door's handle.

'You want me to come up with you?' Seisuke asked, just to be sure he had got the right message for he was actually dying to get in bed with her.

'Yes,' Misa replied, 'only that, this time, try not to vanish in the morning,' she added looking away from him.

'Don't worry,' Seisuke said then, with the cheeky smile which was his trademark, he added, 'I like black coffee for breakfast…'

Misa smiled at him and, laughing softly, she climbed out of the RZ-1.

Meanwhile, back at his home in Shibukawa, Akito pulled his phone out of the pocket and dialling a number from his contacts' list, he waited for an answer.

'Hello?' a young-ish sounding voice replied.

'Hey Suetsugu, it's Fujiwara Akito, do you remember me?'

'Of course I do,' Hiroki replied.

'Great, listen, are you free this Saturday morning?' he asked.

'I think I am, why?' Hiroki said.

'How would you fancy taking a driving test?' Akito asked.

'A driving test?' Hiroki asked sounding very confused.

'Yep,' Akito said, 'I'm looking for a team mate and I think you may have what it takes to become a GP2 racer…'

_To be continued…_


	31. Chapter Thirty

**Programmed Lives – Fifth Stage**

_Chapter Thirty_

Akito was driving his V-86 towards the petrol station just out of the motorway's exit at the south of Maebashi city where he had arranged to meet with Suetsugu Hiroki and, before he could even ask the question he had in his head, Ryoko answered it for him:

'My father was very impressed with your report.'

'Really?' Akito asked.

'Yep, he said that it was extremely well thought out and that the figures were as accurate as the ones he had prepared with Uncle Ryosuke and Fumihiro…'

'Well,' Akito said, 'it's also your doing: I couldn't have done it without your help.'

'Well, that's what nearly two months of university do for you,' Ryoko commented trying to give herself an air of superiority.

'That's probably right,' Akito said looking very serious.

'Hey,' Ryoko started, putting her hand on top of the one he had on the shifter, 'I was kidding…'

'I'm not,' Akito said, 'I think you're going to be a great business woman,' he added glancing at her just for a second so she could see how serious he was about it.

'Thank you,' Ryoko said squeezing his hand with hers very softly then, she added, 'I still can't believe your father kept your biological mother's will a secret.'

'I know,' Akito said, 'and I still don't know why my father didn't use any of it for himself.'

'I think I do,' Ryoko commented almost as if she was talking to herself.

'Really?' he asked.

'Akito,' she started, 'I think your father felt even less comfortable than you did using any of that money.'

'But she was his wife,' Akito countered, 'I didn't even know her so, in my opinion, he's a lot more entitled to that money than I am.'

'No,' Ryoko said shaking her head, 'she was your mother. If anyone is entitled to her patrimony, that's you. Even the law says that…'

Akito stared at her briefly and, returning his gaze to the road, he let out a soft chuckle.

'What's so funny?' Ryoko asked removing her hand from the top of his making Akito miss the contact almost immediately.

'Nothing,' he hurried to say, 'it's just that it's going to take me a while before I get used to…you know…'

'Me sounding smart?' Ryoko finished, using such a neutral tone of voice that Akito didn't know whether she was angry or not.

'Er…yeah, something like that,' Akito admitted deciding to be honest so, if she got angry, at least he would deserve it.

'I know,' she said instead, 'it will take me a while to get used to that too…'

'Ryoko, you are smart,' Akito pointed out, 'it's just that, up to know, you haven't used all your potential.'

'You're just saying that because you don't want me to get angry,' Ryoko commented with just a hint of an accusation in her voice.

'No,' Akito said, 'I'm serious. You've always had the ability to do whatever you wanted and you're really good with maths and all that stuff, not like me: I was a total disaster...'

'That's so not true,' Ryoko exclaimed, 'your marks at school were remarkably good, considering you barely studied. I think that if it weren't because of your madness when it comes to cars, you could have become anything you wanted…'

Akito let out another chuckle, a louder one this time, and said:

'Now you're saying that because you don't want me to feel inferior.'

'No, I'm saying that because it's true,' Ryoko countered, 'and because I love you,' she added with a sweet smile on her lips.

'You're impossible,' Akito said grinning back at her.

'I know, but you love me,' Ryoko said smugly.

'I do,' Akito confirmed and then he started reducing his speed so he could turn into the petrol station where he saw Hiroki's bright orange, ten year old Mitsubishi Eclipse GT which sported the 'Tochigi Thunders' stickers at both sides of its bodywork.

He parked his Toyota next to the Mitsubishi and both he and Ryoko climbed out of the V-86 and walked inside the small cafeteria where Hiroki was waiting for them having a coffee.

'Hey,' Akito said as he and Hiroki shook hands, 'you remember my girlfriend Ryoko, don't you?'

'How could I forget someone like her,' Hiroki replied, reminding Akito that the guy had absolutely no tact whatsoever and because of this, and the fact that Hiroki was staring at Ryoko for a tad longer than it was considered polite, Akito asked:

'Are you ready to go?'

'Sure,' Hiroki replied as drank up his coffee then, leaving a few coins on the bar, he just walked out of the place without waiting for Akito or Ryoko.

'He's an interesting guy,' Ryoko commented almost sarcastically as they followed him.

'Yeah, it's a little too interesting,' Akito said and a slight frown creased his forehead then, as the two of them got back into the V-86, Ryoko asked:

'Are you sure you know what you're doing?'

'I think so,' Akito replied despite the fact that he was beginning to have some doubts about the whole thing.

'Well,' Ryoko continued, 'if he's to become a part of Dad's project, we'll have to work a lot on his diplomatic skills.'

'Diplomatic skills?' Akito asked incredulously, 'baby, this guy doesn't even have the word 'diplomacy' in his dictionary.'

'He'll need to make sure that he gets it in it then,' Ryoko countered, 'otherwise the journalists will eat him alive.'

'That's true,' Akito said for his own experience with the media had ended up with a very nasty accident of which he was constantly reminded by his still slightly stiff right shoulder.

Ten minutes later, Akito entered the Takahashi Motorsports Centre where he parked his car at his usual spot while Hiroki left his occupying the gap next to the V-86.

'Uncle Ryosuke's here,' Ryoko commented as she got out of the V-86 and pointed at the brand new silver Mazda sedan which had replaced the MPV the family used to own.

'Is that bad?' Hiroki asked to her.

'No,' Akito replied instead, 'he's probably here to see his younger brother.'

'Or to see you,' Ryoko said, speaking to Hiroki and earning herself a glare from Akito.

'Ah, okay, whatever,' Hiroki said walking ahead of them with so much nonchalance that Akito was, once more, astounded by how extremely carefree this guy could be. Akito only hoped that his judgement didn't reveal itself to be a complete failure for, if it was, he would have a lot of explaining to do.

'Hey, we saw you coming in!' Kyosuke shouted walking towards them followed by Kizuna.

'Hello,' Hiroki said waving at them.

'Hi,' Kyosuke replied then, looking at Akito, he added, 'come on, everyone is waiting for us at the track. They have a surprise for you.'

'What a coincidence,' Akito said grinning at Kyosuke pointing at Hiroki doing an almost imperceptible gesture with his head.

Kyosuke smiled back at Akito giving him a knowing look and then, all five of them started walking towards the centre's small circuit.

'Wow,' Hiroki said as he observed everything around him, 'this place must cost a fortune to run.'

'It does,' Kyosuke confirmed.

'Your family must be loaded then,' Hiroki said and, instead of looking shocked, Kyosuke just laughed at him as he nodded.

'We're not too bad,' he said sounding very amused.

'This is going to be so much fun,' Kizuna whispered to Ryoko.

'Not for everybody,' Ryoko whispered back as she stared at her boyfriend who looked rather concerned about the whole thing.

Finally, they saw the two Takahashi brothers, the original set, standing with Fumihiro, Kenta and Akito's father Takumi.

'Is this the driver you had in mind?' Keisuke asked Akito while he pointed at Hiroki.

'Yes sir,' Akito replied, 'this is Suetsugu Hiroki.'

For just an instant no one looked perplexed by this but then, almost at the same time, Akito saw his own father and Ryosuke-san do a double take.

'Akito,' Takumi started, 'what's the meaning of this?'

'He's good,' Akito said, 'trust me.'

'What's going on?' Keisuke asked as he took a step towards where Akito and the rest were.

'He's Suetsugu Tohru's kid, isn't he?' Ryosuke asked.

'Yes sir,' Akito replied and, just as he had said that, something seemed to click in Keisuke's brain for he closed the gap which separated him from Akito and, grabbing him by his right arm, started dragging him away from the group.

'Ouch,' Akito complained as he felt something go crack in his shoulder.

'Shit, sorry,' Keisuke apologised as he realised that this was Akito's injured arm then, before the eighteen year old could say nor do anything, Keisuke started, 'I thought you were going to bring in one of your old mates from a GP2 team like that Ruben kid or…'

'Keisuke-san,' Akito said, 'this is just a test and I do think he's going to surprise us.'

'He better,' Keisuke said, 'because I borrowed a GP2 car for the occasion and I really would hate if I had to return it damaged.'

'You've done what?' Akito asked raising his eyebrows in surprise.

'I've borrowed a GP2 car,' Keisuke repeated, 'and if that punk you've brought with you gets even a single scratch on its bodywork, you will be in for a lot of trouble.'

With that, Keisuke walked away from Akito leaving him feeling even more anxious than usual then, doing his best to recover from that, Akito went back to the group and said:

'Okay Hiroki, come with me so you can get into a racing suit.'

They walked inside one of the garages and opening one of the lockers, Akito extracted a racing suit, a pair of gloves and a pair of racing shoes.

'You can use any of those helmets from there,' Akito said pointing at a nearby shelf, 'there should be one your size.'

Then, as Hiroki started getting dressed, Akito started talking.

'Listen,' he said, 'I know for a fact that you've competed in several karting races and that last year you entered a couple of the Toyota FJ1600 series races. I also know that you've been driving for a lot longer than you were legally allowed.'

'How did you find that out?'

'I have my sources,' Akito replied.

'Fair enough,' Hiroki said.

'Now,' Akito said, 'a GP-2 car is about ten times harder to drive than an FJ1600 so you'll need to get used to it during the first few laps. Until then, forget about pushing it. Today, I just want to see if my hunch is correct or not, nothing else, okay?'

'Sure,' Hiroki said and, for the first time, Akito realised that maybe he was just wasting his breath for the guy didn't even seem to be listening to him.

'Hey, I'm serious: a GP2 car handles itself a lot differently than the junior formula cars you've used before.'

'I know that,' Hiroki said looking at Akito with a frown on his usually expressionless face, 'do you think I'm stupid?'

'No, of course not,' Akito replied, 'it's just that you've got to be careful.'

Hiroki looked at Akito and as he walked towards the shelf, he muttered something which sounded a lot like 'careful...yeah right…'

By the time they made it to the track where everyone else was waiting for them Akito was officially freaked out and his anxiety didn't get any better as he saw Hiroki getting into the completely black GP2 car.

Fumihiro started the vehicle's engine and, before Akito could have any second thoughts, Hiroki was off and, after a first few almost hesitant laps, Tohru's kid started pushing the car a tad too hard for Akito's liking and by the time Hiroki started doing his tenth lap, Akito could almost feel his blood pressure rising beyond any reasonable levels.

'So, this is the first time Hiroki drives one of these?' Ryosuke asked Akito who, being too nervous to trust himself to speak, just managed to offer the father of his two best friends a curt nod.

'This is going to be so much fun,' Fumihiro added.

'That's what I said,' Kizuna said smiling at the older man.

'Fun isn't the word I'd use,' Keisuke said glaring at Akito who swallowing visibly, decided to focus his attention back on the track where to Akito's astonishment, Hiroki was still driving the GP2 car keeping a surprisingly optimal line.

'You know,' Takumi started, 'he's not that bad.'

Akito looked at his father feeling eternally grateful that someone was on his side, even if that someone was his own father and therefore hardly partial.

'No, he's not,' Ryosuke agreed and Akito turned his head sharply to look at Ryoko's uncle.

'Wow,' Kenta said as he stopped the chronometer he was using to time Hiroki's laps, 'that's not bad at all.'

'Are you sure he's never driven one of those before?' Fumihiro asked Akito.

'Yes, I'm sure,' Akito said as he started feeling way too many emotions to give a name to all of them: he felt happy to see that his choice hadn't been completely wrong, puzzled, seeing how unbelievably well Hiroki was doing in his first try ever and worried that he may have got himself a very dangerous rival.

'Kenta,' Keisuke said, 'tell him to get back in at the following lap.'

'Yes,' Kenta said and, using one of the signboards the circuit came equipped with, Akito saw the word IN being lit up in huge yellow letters.

'What the…' Keisuke exclaimed seeing that, despite the fact that Hiroki had clearly seen the sign as he went past, he had deliberately chosen to ignore it.

'Yeah,' Ryoko started and, as she put her hand on her father's arm, she added, 'we'll have to work a bit on his less-than-polished personality.'

'That's a very nice way of putting it,' Kyosuke said laughing.

'Akito,' Keisuke almost barked as he, once more, glared at the young man, 'tell him to get back in, even if you have to stand in the middle of the bloody track.'

'Yes sir,' Akito said and, with this, he ran to the track's edge getting as close to it as it was safe and seeing Hiroki approaching him at very high speed, he started waving his left arm up and down, praying for all that was holy that the guy would stop instead of run over him.

Thankfully, he did stop just a few metres away from Akito.

'Hey,' Akito started as Hiroki climbed out of the car and removed his helmet, 'when you see that sign lit up, you're supposed to go IN, okay?'

'Ah, that's what it's for,' Hiroki said and Akito didn't know whether the guy was taking the mickey out of him or if he was for real.

'Look, if you're to become part of this team you'll have to learn all of these things very quickly,' Akito explained.

'Am I part of the team?' Hiroki asked.

'I don't know yet,' Akito replied then, pointing at the group of people who were watching them, he added, 'it's those guys there who make the decisi…'

Before Akito could finish, Hiroki walked towards where everyone stood and, planting himself in front of Keisuke, he said:

'So, am I part of the team?'

Ryosuke and Fumihiro exchanged equally amused looks while Kenta stared at the young man with an incredulous look on his face and both Kyosuke and Kizuna tried, and failed, to repress a chuckle. Only Takumi and Ryoko seemed to remain straight faced, probably as a sign of their unconditional support to Akito. Keisuke, on the other hand, looked so flabbergasted that it took him a few instants in order to regain his ability to speak.

'Well,' he started, 'we still need to talk about it and…'

'Ah, right,' Hiroki interrupted him, 'so you'll let me know and all that jazz, correct?'

'Yes, that's it,' Keisuke replied still looking pretty much stunned.

'So I'll never hear from you again,' Hiroki said but, unbelievable enough, he didn't sound nor looked disappointed in the slightest.

'Hey, I'm just saying that we need time to decide,' Keisuke explained feeling that, for some reason, he needed to justify himself with the kid.

'Ah, okay,' Hiroki said and then, he turned to face Akito and added, 'you still owe me a re-match.'

With that, and without waiting for anybody to tell him to leave, they all observed as he went back to the garage, took the suit and the shoes off and leaving them carefully stored back where Akito had got them from then, not even bothering to greet, much less thank anyone, he just made his way back to his car, looking very much like if he didn't have a care in the world.

'You know,' Ryosuke said and, as usual, everyone looked at him, 'the way he behaves and the way he drives remind me of an F1 driver from the early nineties called Katayama Ukyo.'

'That's right,' Fumihiro, as usual, agreed with his long term friend.

'Well,' Keisuke said, 'if I'm not mistaken, Katayama never did very well in any of the races he entered…'

'Katayama never had a competitive machine,' Ryosuke explained, 'but he did have one hell of a talent when it came to racing with the right spirit. In a way, I'd say that this kid's attitude is the best a driver can have.'

'Aniki, he's nuts,' Keisuke said.

'Yes,' Ryosuke agreed, 'and that's precisely why I think that he'll do very well.'

'That's what I thought too,' Akito said happy to see that he now had Ryosuke's very authoritative opinion backing his.

'Unfortunately, and like Ryoko said, we'll have to work on his personality a lot if he's to survive in the professional racing world,' Ryosuke added.

'Aniki,' Keisuke said, 'do you seriously think we've found our second driver?'

Ryosuke looked at his younger brother for a short while before nodding.

'I'd say we have.'

'Okay,' Keisuke said and, looking at Akito, he added, 'let's wait for a couple of days, then call him for a second test. If he's this good in the second test too, I'll have a proposal ready for him.'

Again, Akito didn't know whether to be happy or feel more worried than ever.

_To be continued…_


	32. Chapter Thirty One

**Programmed Lives – Fifth Stage**

_Chapter Thirty One_

If for Hiroki's first test he had only nine people watching him, for the second one it was a completely different story and, by the time Hiroki and his father arrived at the circuit, he saw quite a few familiar looking people sitting at the small grandstand.

'What is this Dad?' Hiroki asked his father Tohru.

'Oh, just a few friends I thought would have liked to watch you driving a GP2 car,' Tohru replied.

'Dad, they're going to make me nervous,' Hiroki said and then both father and son heard someone snigger.

Turning round, they saw Akito walking towards them with the other eight people who had witnessed his first test plus Seisuke who, having been told about Hiroki's abilities, was very much looking forward to seeing the show.

'You know,' Akito started, smirking at Hiroki, 'I didn't think it was possible for you to get nervous about anything.'

Hiroki looked startled for just a second he then shook his head and said:

'Let's go so I can get changed.'

It was Akito's turn to shake his head as he started making his way to the nearby garage where they kept all the racing apparel. Hiroki followed him rushing so he could keep up with Akito.

'Thanks for this,' Tohru said speaking to Keisuke, 'it's a great opportunity for him.'

'He's not in the team yet,' Keisuke reminded him, 'but he's good enough. If only…'

'If only he were a little less dry, I know,' Tohru said, 'unfortunately, he's taken that aspect of his personality after my father in law.'

Keisuke let out a chuckle.

'Don't worry,' Ryosuke said, 'we'll make sure he gets all the right training.'

'And, again, I thank you for that,' Tohru said then, looking at Takumi, he added, 'it's kind of funny. Who would have said that our kids would end up racing together?'

'Not me,' Takumi replied honestly.

'What about your kids? I'd thought they'd become professional racers too,' Tohru said glancing back at the Takahashi brothers.

'Kyosuke's going to be involved in the team as one of the engineers,' Ryosuke explained, 'Seisuke will be too busy this year with his finals so he'll just come to help out whenever he can.'

'Ah, I see.'

'I'll help too,' Ryoko said before her own father could speak.

'Yeah, by making sure Akito doesn't get too stressed,' Seisuke said teasingly, earning himself twin glares coming from both Ryoko and her father.

'Just ignore him,' Kizuna said linking her arm with Ryoko's, 'remember that he's lovesick now,' she added winking an eye at her.

'That's right, poor thing,' Ryoko agreed and then the two girls walked away from the group to go up to the grandstand from where they would watch Hiroki's second test then, noticing that everyone was looking at Seisuke in a very inquisitive manner, he let out an exasperated huff before following them too, doing his best to ignore the badly stifled chuckle coming from his older brother.

'Is it true?' Keisuke whispered to his other nephew while they made their way to the box where they kept the borrowed GP2 car.

'I think so,' Kyosuke replied smiling at his uncle.

'What about the 'I'm done with girls' policy?' Keisuke asked.

'Uncle Keisuke,' Kyosuke said, 'Seisuke's been single for a whole five months and, to be honest, I didn't think he'd last half that long without a girlfriend…'

'I see,' Keisuke said and, before he could add anything else, they saw Akito and Hiroki coming back to re-join them.

'Okay, just do what I said,' Akito was saying, 'and when you see the IN sign…'

'I'll get in, don't worry,' Hiroki said then, putting his helmet on, he walked towards the GP2 car and climbed into it so he could strap himself onto the seat.

'Don't worry, he says…' Akito muttered sounding so miserable that Takumi patted his son's left shoulder trying to give the kid some much needed strength, 'he's so frustrating that's driving me insane,' Akito added.

'It's hard teaching other people, isn't it?' Takumi asked his son.

'I swear, I'll never make fun of any teacher ever again,' Akito replied making Takumi smile at his kid.

An instant later, Fumihiro started the GP2 car's engine and its roar made it impossible for anyone to hear anything and shortly after that, they all saw Hiroki driving the car out of the box and into the circuit.

'Dad,' Akito said, 'do you think I could take it for a spin too?'

'I don't know, you'll have to ask Ryosuke,' Takumi replied. Akito nodded and walked to where the doctor was, repeated the question, getting a very obvious negative answer then, Akito walked back to his father looking quite sulky as he sat down on the grass which grew outside the boxes.

'Too soon my foot,' he muttered to himself as he shook his head.

'Son,' Takumi said crouching next to his kid, 'you've got to be patient.'

'Patient?' Akito exclaimed incredulously, 'it's been almost two months and it's still too soon!'

'You're already driving the V-86, aren't you?' Takumi asked.

'Yes but…'

'Then don't rush things,' Takumi ordered, 'the more you rush it the longer it's going to take for you to get back in shape,' he added as he got back up so he could walk to where the rest of the adults were.

Akito grunted as he strapped a bit of grass with his hand, throwing the strands back on the ground then, as he heard Kenta beginning to shout about the fantastic times Hiroki was still keeping made Akito feel so extremely frustrated that he would have given anything to be able to get in the car and show Hiroki the reason why he had made it to professionalism so quickly.

'Hey, can I join you?' Ryoko asked making Akito look up at his beautiful girlfriend.

'Of course,' Akito replied hoping that his voice sounded normal.

'I know how you must be feeling,' Ryoko started as she sat down next to her boyfriend, 'but don't worry: I know that regardless of how good his times are, you can beat them easily.'

Akito laughed softly as he took Ryoko's hand in his, bringing it up his lips so he could kiss it.

'I love you,' he said and the way she smiled at him made Akito almost forget how very upset he was.

Two hours later, the second test was over and as Akito had predicted and feared, everyone was still very impressed with Hiroki's performance so, after signing the contract which tied him to the team, the nineteen year old was welcomed into the team by Keisuke who gave him a handshake.

'Well done son!' Tohru exclaimed grasping his kid's shoulders with his two hands, 'I can't believe you've made it!'

'Thanks for the vote of confidence,' Hiroki said with such a monotone voice that Akito wanted to smack him on the back of his head for he remembered the day he'd made it into a professional racing team as one of the most exciting days of his life.

Instead, he just got up and after he helped Ryoko get up too, they walked to where Kyosuke, Kizuna and Seisuke were.

'Guys,' Akito said, 'let's go for a drive later on, okay?'

'We have to,' Kyosuke replied, 'we've got a training session tonight, remember?'

'Ah, that's right,' Akito said slapping his forehead with his hand, 'that's just perfect!' he added smiling at his friends feeling very grateful that at least he would be able to release a bit of his pent up frustration as he drifted all the way down Mt Akagi.

'They're leaving,' Seisuke commented pointing at Hiroki and his father who, followed by the horde of friends they had brought with them, were making their way back to their cars.

'Good,' Akito said with such a bitter tone of voice that everyone looked at him.

'Hey,' Kyosuke said, 'I thought you had brought him here because you liked him.'

'It's not that I don't like him,' Akito explained, 'it's just that this carefree attitude of his is beginning to get on my nerves.'

'I'm hungry,' Ryoko said all of a sudden, 'let's go and get some lunch, okay?'

'I can't,' Seisuke said, 'I've got to…'

'…go and see Misa,' the two couples said speaking all four of them at the same time.

'Geez people, you need to get a life,' Seisuke complained as he rushed towards his RZ-1, once more, ignoring the snicker coming from the group of what supposedly were his best friends.

'We've got to stay here with the rest of the technical staff,' Kyosuke explained, 'now that we've got our two drivers, the budget and the infrastructure, we'll need to start working on the cars.'

'That's right,' Kizuna said looking very much eager to start doing just that, 'I can't wait!' she added smiling happily.

'Can I do anything to help you guys?' Akito asked and seeing Kyosuke shaking his head made him look at Ryoko and say, 'It's just the two of us then.'

'Perfect,' the girl said grabbing him by the arm and, before he could even add anything else, she started dragging him back to the V-86.

Three weeks after Hiroki had become a member of the still nameless GP2 team, Akito and the rest of the Golden Arrows got together at their usual meeting point so they could drive all the distance to the Kanagawa prefecture where, in the twisted roads of the Hakone Pass, there would be one of the biggest street racing gatherings of the Kanto region.

'Guys,' Kyosuke said, 'this is it, we've been training very hard and we know we can win whichever race they throw at us. Now, let's just drive there and show them who the Golden Arrows are!'

'YES!' everyone shouted, including Ryoko who wasn't even an official member of the team.

'Are you sure you want to take your car there?' Akito asked her as they stood next to her little Mazda.

'Yeah, I should be fine,' she said, 'besides, I have the radio and if I need to tell you something, we can always use the private channel…'

'That's right,' Akito said giving her a quick kiss, 'just don't drive too fast, okay?'

She laughed at him and getting into her small red convertible, she said:

'Just try to keep up with me.'

Kizuna, who had overheard the exchange, chuckled as she glanced at Akito with an amused expression on her exotic looking face then, before Akito could even open his mouth, the half-American girl climbed into her grey Nissan locking herself in it.

'Hey get moving,' Seisuke said as he too climbed into the white RZ-1 making Akito realise that he was the only one who still was out of his car then, running towards the Toyota, he got in it, strapped himself onto the bucket seat and turned the engine on.

Soon enough, all seventeen cars got into the motorway heading southwest for Hakone, leaving the Gunma prefecture behind and cutting across Saitama and Tokyo to get into Kanagawa, the southernmost prefecture of the Kanto region.

In Hakone, situated right at the border with the neighbouring Chubu region, there was the starting point of the old Tokaido road and a part of this ancient road formed the Hakone Pass which, given the mountainous nature of the area, was even more twisted and sometimes steeper than the infamous Irohazaka pass in Mt Nikko.

Akito simply could not wait to try the pass himself for his own father had told him that it was the place were, together with Ryosuke-san's project D, he had raced one of his hardest battles and, after what Akito had been through in the past few weeks, he felt really impatient to test himself to see if he was indeed back to normal.

Getting out of the motorway Akito rotated his right shoulder to notice that it no longer cracked nor it was painful.

'This is fantastic,' he then heard Ryoko's voice say and that made Akito notice that the seventeen cars had arrived at the Hakone Park and, even in the dimming light of the dusk, its beauty was truly breathtaking.

'Just look at that,' he then heard Shinji exclaim and Akito looked ahead and saw that there were quite a few other cars already driving up and down the hills, some of them drifting with such mastery that made all of them get goose bumps.

'I wanna do that too!' Izawa shouted.

'Guys, calm down,' Kyosuke said trying to make sure no one got too enthusiastic even though, he had to admit it, he was also getting rather excited.

'Yes, we'll all get our chance to show our skills,' he then heard Kizuna add making him smile for she sounded every bit as eager to test her driving in such a challenging mountain pass.

As he'd been told by the event's organisers, they had arranged to gather in a car park by one of the area's numerous lakes and, after parking the RZ-1, Kyosuke looked around himself as he waited for the rest of his team to climb out of their cars.

It was absolutely amazing, Kyosuke thought, there were so many cars and such a huge amount of people, that the oldest of the Takahashi brothers could not help but to think that surely the authorities knew about this and they simply turned a blind eye to the whole thing.

'Hey, who are you?' a guy in his mid twenties asked walking towards Kyosuke.

'I'm Takahashi Kyosuke, leader of the Golden Arrows.'

'Ah,' the guy said, 'you're the guy from Akagi, aren't you?'

'Yes, that's right,' Kyosuke said, 'you must be Ozawa Ichiro.'

'Yes, that's me,' the guy replied, 'and those there are the members of my team,' he added pointing at a group formed by only six cars all of them heavily modified and with twin stickers bearing the name 'Hakone Maniacs' on them.

'Hakone Maniacs?' Akito whispered to Seisuke who, lifting his eyebrows up, he shrugged his shoulders.

Meanwhile, Ichiro finished issuing Kyosuke some instructions and, with that, he walked away from them and back to his team.

'Okay guys, we've got to decide who's going to race,' Kyosuke informed them, 'then, we've got to give our car's keys to that girl over there,' he added pointing at a girl who was now talking to Ichiro.

'Why?' Akito asked for he wasn't too happy about separating himself from the key to his V-86.

'That's to decide who races against whom: they'll put our car's keys in a bag then they will extract one and pair it with another one, that's why I asked you earlier on to stick a label with your initials on your key, this way they can identify it fairly quickly…' Kyosuke explained showing to everyone his own key which had the initials KT engraved on it.

'Okay,' Seisuke said pulling his RZ-1's key out of his pocket.

'Who else wants to race?' Kyosuke said.

'Here,' Akito said giving his key to Kyosuke.

'I'm in too,' Masato said.

'Junya?' Kyosuke asked to the former rogue of his team.

'Nah, I'll leave this one to Akito,' he said patting Akito on his right shoulder, who winced visibly, 'sorry, I…'

'Just kidding,' Akito said with a cheeky grin.

'You're such a punk,' Junya complained but keeping a wide smile on his face.

'Holy mother of…' they heard Seisuke say all of a sudden.

'What's up?' Akito asked but he didn't need an answer to his question for he then saw the mica coloured Honda Civic Si Coupe belonging to the Tochigi Thunder's leader Jiro Kosugi. Following that car, it was the red V37 from Seisuke's girlfriend Misa, 'did she mention to you that they'd be here?' Akito asked as he also noticed Hiroki's orange Eclipse parking next to Misa's car.

'Nope,' Seisuke replied as he made his way to where his girlfriend was then, as Akito was going to follow him, he saw Ichiro walking towards Jiro and, smelling trouble, Akito and the rest of his team mates rushed to where Jiro was.

'Hey, I didn't think you'd show up,' they heard Ichiro say to the leader of the Tochigi Thunders.

'Why not?' Jiro asked crossing his arms in front of his chest while adopting an almost defensive pose.

'Er…' Ichiro started, 'well…no reason, I guess.'

'Good,' Jiro said and, handing him three keys, he added, 'here, these are the keys from the members of my team which will take part in the races.'

'Okay,' Ichiro said and, with that, Jiro left to, once more, re-joined his team.

'Hey,' Ichiro said talking to Kyosuke, 'do you have your keys ready too?'

'Yes,' Kyosuke said handing them to him.

'Thank you,' the guy said then as Ichiro passed them onto the girl who was with him, she looked at Ryoko and asked:

'Is your key one of those?'

Ryoko looked all flustered for a second before she shook her head once.

'No, I'm not a racer.'

'You're not?' the girl said incredulously, 'well, I am and I've seen you drive the same car I do so, if you feel like it, I'd like to take our cars for a spin…'

Akito was about to say no when, taking everyone by surprise, Ryoko smiled to the girl and said:

'Okay, but we'll have to take it easy, I'm not very good.'

'That's what the best racers always say,' the girl said before she and Ichiro walked away from them.

'Ryoko, what do you think you're doing?' Kyosuke asked his baby cousin using a very reprimanding tone of voice.

'Hey,' Ryoko protested, 'it's not like I'm racing her: we'll just drive for the fun of it.'

Then, and before anyone had the time to correct her, Ryoko and the rest saw as Ichiro and the girl started pairing up the keys they had gathered, hanging them together on a wooden panel full of hooks they had brought with them, making it obvious to everyone that they were very used to this kind of system.

'Right,' Ichiro shouted so everyone could hear him, 'the first race is…oh, that's funny,' he said laughing, 'this is MY key,' he added then, taking the other key, he asked, 'who drives a Mazda and has the initials ST?'

'That's me,' Seisuke shouted at him and that made Misa gasp very loudly.

'What's wrong?' Seisuke asked her.

'You can't race him,' Misa ordered clearly beginning to panic.

'Why not?' Seisuke asked her, feeling very confused by his girlfriend's odd reaction.

'Seisuke,' Misa said grasping her boyfriend's arm as she spoke, 'do you know who this guy is?' she asked.

'No,' Seisuke replied.

'That's the guy who was racing against my brother the night he died.'

_To be continued…_


	33. Chapter Thirty Two

**Programmed Lives – Fifth Stage**

_Chapter Thirty Two_

As usual, the time Seisuke needed to make a decision was so short that, by the time everyone else's brains had finished processing Misa's shocking revelation, Seisuke had already started making his way to where Ichiro was.

'Hey,' the guy started as he saw Seisuke approaching him with a very serious expression on his face, 'I don't know what she's told you but…' he added pointing at Misa who Seisuke saw, was already following him.

'So, it is true then,' Seisuke said once he made it to the guy, 'you were racing her brother when he died…'

'Yes,' Ichiro replied sounding quite annoyed, 'how many times do I have to tell you?' he asked looking at Misa and at Jiro who, in the mean time had also got there along with the whole of the Golden Arrows and the Tochigi Thunders.

'We just don't believe you!' Misa exclaimed.

'I don't fucking care if you do,' Ichiro said angrily, 'it was an accident! Or at least I think it was, goodness knows…'

'What are you talking about?' Seisuke asked.

'I never saw him crash!' Ichiro exclaimed, 'I've said it one million times and I've already apologised in every way I know,' he continued, looking from Seisuke to Misa and back to Seisuke.

'Do you think that this helps?' Misa said and Seisuke could tell that she was pretty upset, 'all I know is that he was fine in the morning and then we got a call from some hospital in the middle of the night telling us that my brother was dead!'

'I've already said I'm sorry, okay? I simply refuse to say it again,' Ichiro said then, glancing once more at Seisuke, he explained, 'I saw that he was very upset about something and I tried to convince him that he wasn't in the right state of mind to race but he wouldn't listen to anything I said…'

'Why did he come here?' Seisuke asked, thinking that if Misa's brother wanted a race he could have gone somewhere a lot closer to home.

'Because he'd been after a re-match for months,' Ichiro explained, 'I had won our previous race in Momiji Lane and he always insisted that he'd beat me here,' he said pointing at the mountain, 'everyone knows that no one beats me in my mountain but he still wanted to race me here.'

'That's true,' the girl who was with him said.

'Look,' Ichiro continued, 'I lost sight of him half way through the race and by the time I made it to the summit I waited for him for several minutes until I realised that something was wrong.'

'Yes,' the girl said, 'by the time we got there, there wasn't much we could do.'

'We took him to the hospital where they confirmed to us that he was dead and that we needed to get in touch with his relatives,' Ichiro explained.

'You left him there and you never called us!' Misa shouted.

'Yes,' the girl said, 'we did it because we didn't have the faintest idea of who to call.'

'You could have looked inside his wallet, or try to find his phone!' Jiro exclaimed sounding as upset as Misa was.

'Yeah, right,' Ichiro said bitterly, 'what do you freaking think we are? We panicked when we saw his car smashed up against a tree down the freaking cliff. It was a goddamn miracle we managed to get him out of it and into one of our cars.'

'Yes,' the girl said, 'We're really sorry about what happened but, believe me, there was nothing we could…'

'Okay,' Seisuke interrupted her, 'I've heard enough. Let's just race.'

'What?' Misa asked in shock, 'you can't race him!'

'Misa,' Seisuke said getting very serious, 'if you want us to be together, don't start ordering me around…' this made Misa look at him as though as he had just slapped her.

'Now,' Seisuke said looking back at Ichiro, 'can I have my key back?'

'Sure,' Ichiro said handing him the key to the Mazda, 'we're going to practice for an hour before the races start…'

'Good,' Seisuke said and, taking the key from Ichiro, he walked to his RZ-1 followed by Kyosuke and Akito.

'Hey, don't take it personally, my cousin can be very strong headed,' Ryoko said, desperately trying to make a very upset Misa feel better.

'Both brothers are,' Kizuna added as she joined the other two girls, 'I've been with Kyosuke for almost three years and I still wouldn't even dream of telling him what to do.'

'I guess so,' Misa said laughing nervously, 'I'm just not used to having a boyfriend yet.'

'Don't worry, there are ways to make them do what we want,' Ryoko commented smiling at Misa as she linked her arm with the older girl's.

'You should listen to Ryoko,' Kizuna advised, 'she's become quite the expert in all these years dealing with Akito who, by the way, can be even worse than Kyosuke and Seisuke put together.'

'That's right,' Ryoko agreed.

'Thanks girls,' Misa said even though she still felt like crying for this episode had just made her think that Seisuke probably didn't care for her as much as she was beginning to care for him.

After all the pairings for the races had been decided, everyone got back into their cars and, taking it in turns, every one of the racers present there had their chance to drive up and down and back up several times then, the downhillers remained up at the summit while the racers who'd be doing the uphill battles parked their cars back in the car park.

'There you are!' the girl who'd asked Ryoko to drive said seeing Ryoko up the summit talking to Akito, 'I've been looking for you all over the place!'

'Sorry, I've been here most of the time,' Ryoko said.

'So, shall we take our cars down so we can then watch the start of the first of the uphill battles?'

'Okay,' Ryoko said and, seeing Akito getting rather anxious, she added, 'remember that I'm a total newbie so, you've got to take things easy or my boyfriend here will have a heart attack.'

The girl laughed softly giving Akito a knowing look she then nodded and said:

'Don't worry, I promise you'll have both her and her beautiful car waiting for you in one piece.'

'Okay,' Akito said not sounding very convinced and wishing he had Ryoko's two cousins backing him up. Unfortunately, both Takahashi brothers were at the base of the mountain since they were both going to attack the pass going uphill.

'Good, my name's Hayase Atsuko, by the way.'

'Takahashi Ryoko.'

'Well, Ryoko, shall we?'

'Yes,' Ryoko said and, giving Akito a quick kiss, she assured him with an, 'I'll be fine, I promise.'

'Okay,' Akito repeated, still not sounding at all sure and repressing the instinct which wanted him to lock Ryoko up in his car so she wouldn't go anywhere near hers. Then, feeling more apprehensive than ever, he saw as the love of his life climbed into her small red convertible and started its engine.

'Akito,' Kizuna said reminding him that she had been there all the time, 'she'll be fine. Don't worry, I've seen the way she drives and she's quite good.'

'I know,' Akito said without removing his eyes from the car which was now rolling towards an identical model only that this one was painted in canary yellow.

'Hey,' Kizuna started again, 'you should trust her driving a lot more than this. She's a Takahashi after all.'

'I know,' Akito repeated and, listening to Kizuna's words he tried, and failed, to force himself to relax.

'Let's get into your car so we can listen to her,' Kizuna proposed and, a few moments later the two of them watched from the inside of the V-86 as both Mazda convertibles took off at such high speed that Akito found himself grasping the borders of his bucket seat.

Meanwhile, Ryoko was surprised to see that she had actually managed to start the race ahead of Atsuko but, again and since this wasn't an official race maybe the other girl had just wanted to give her some advantage.

For this reason, Ryoko decided not to let her guard down and keep all her attention ahead of her feeling grateful that she had just taken a run with Akito driving her car downhill so he had been able to point to her all the important bits about the road and about what he thought it was the best way to attack every one of the very narrow and tight corners.

She was also grateful for all the tips and tricks she'd learned from everyone in her family and, for the first time in her life, Ryoko felt a tiny bit like a street racer and, if she had to be honest with herself, she actually liked that feeling.

After all, driving was nothing but a very complex choreography and, by following the right steps, she could make the car do whatever she wanted, a bit like the way she could control the skates as they glided on the ice.

When she saw two headlights reflected on her rear view mirror, Ryoko was brought back to reality as she realised that Atsuko, for some reason, was starting to take this as seriously as if it were a real race.

'Oh gosh,' she gasped as she realised that they were going over one hundred kilometres an hour.

'What's wrong?' she then heard Akito's voice, loaded with badly concealed worry, say.

'Nothing, I'm okay,' she reassured him, 'I'm actually having loads of fun,' she added and then she heard a feminine laughter: probably Kizuna's, Ryoko thought with a smile.

Straightening herself in her seat, she reaffirmed her grasp on the steering wheel and as she got very serious, Ryoko threw caution out of the window and decided to floor the accelerator concentrating on her driving with the same intensity she did while preparing herself to do a triple axle.

The result was obvious enough for those lucky ones who saw her drifting through one of the tighter corners of the pass: she managed to keep an admirably precise line all the way from the entry of the corner to its exit, repeating the process as she got to the following corner and to the one after that.

She only had one major scare through the whole race and it happened right after the last corner of the course where there was a more or less straight section of road. There, just as Ryoko was about to open the throttle to make her car go faster, she realised that she could no longer see the headlights of Atsuko's car reflected on the rear view mirror.

'Where's…' she whispered as she searched for the girl's car frantically then, as she looked to the left side of her car, she saw the nose of the canary yellow convertible as Atsuko was trying to overtake.

Trying being the key word for, Ryoko didn't even think twice about what she had to do next: accelerating just enough to make sure she had more than half a car of advantage, she moved the steering wheel towards the right just for a few centimetres only to turn it back to the left as she accelerated even more effectively closing the line that Atsuko was about to follow forcing her to brake and leaving her very startled by the highly aggressive manoeuvre that the so-called newbie driver had just used against her.

Everyone who had been waiting for the two girls at the base of the pass was unable to believe their eyes as they saw that, instead of the yellow convertible they all were expecting, it was the red one which crossed the finish line in first position.

'Hey you! If you're a newbie I'll eat my car's keys!' Atsuko shouted as she jumped out of her car and ran towards Ryoko who had just got out of hers.

'I'm sorry,' Ryoko said with her eyes still wide with the shock of realising that she had won a race: her first one ever.

'You're sorry? You better be: you've just smashed my record!' Atsuko asked scaring Ryoko with her harsh tone of voice.

'That's right,' Ichiro said as he and Ryoko's cousins joined the two girls, 'Atsuko had never lost before…'

'Well done Ryoko,' Kyosuke said patting Ryoko on her shoulder, 'you've made me very proud!'

'I still can't believe it,' Seisuke added, 'our baby cousin's finally decided to become a racer!'

'Are you saying she's never raced before?' Atsuko asked the two brothers who shook their heads, 'ever?'

'It's the first time I see her racing in my whole life,' Kyosuke replied as his younger brother nodded to that.

'Shit,' Atsuko breathed having to lean on Ryoko's car for support and even Ichiro seemed to take pity on her for he put his arms around her shoulders, trying his best to comfort her.

'I'm really sorry,' Ryoko said looking indeed mortified by the whole thing, 'I really don't know what happened to me,' she continued.

'What happened to you is that you got competitive the way a racer does,' Ichiro explained.

'But I'm not a…'

'Rubbish,' Atsuko interrupted her, 'you may not want to be a racer but, hell, you ARE one.'

Seisuke and Kyosuke laughed at the horrified expression Ryoko had on her face then, as the five of them walked back to where everyone else was, Seisuke whispered to his older brother:

'Aniki, I think we should get her a couple of our stickers.'

'You know she'll never let us put them on her car,' Kyosuke said, 'however, maybe after this race she'll change her mind about street racing.'

'Only in your dreams,' Ryoko said startling the two of them, 'besides, Akito would have a nervous breakdown if I were to do this on a regular basis.'

'That's probably true,' Kyosuke agreed, 'I can't wait to see his face when we tell him you've won though.'

'I can,' Ryoko said resolutely then, looking at Seisuke, she asked, 'shouldn't you get ready for your race?'

'Yes ma'am,' Seisuke replied giving her a military salute, 'I can't possibly lose after the stunt you've pulled, can I?'

'Just be careful, okay?' she said getting very serious.

'I will, don't worry,' Seisuke replied and, in a very unusual display of affection, he hugged his cousin, 'I am really proud of you, Ryoko.'

Ryoko was left completely speechless as Seisuke walked towards his white RZ-1 where Misa was waiting for him.

'Seisuke,' the girl started, 'I know you don't want me to…'

'Misa, I am perfectly conscious of what happened here and believe me, I'll keep it in mind while I drive but, you really have to trust me.'

'I do,' Misa said and she knew it was true, 'but if something happened…'

'Nothing will happen and, in the highly unlikely event that it does, I have plenty of people here who'll come to my aid,' Seisuke assured her.

'I'm one of them,' Misa said knowing very well that with that she was practically confessing to him that she had already fallen in love with him.

'Then I'm in very good hands,' Seisuke said grinning at her the way he was beginning to realise she couldn't resist and, predictably enough, she went up on her tiptoes and kissed him.

After that, Seisuke got into his car starting his engine and driving it towards Ichiro's dark red Honda NSX RR NA-1, an identical model to that of Eiji. Ichiro's car looked to be even more heavily modified than Eiji's. Seisuke wasn't afraid of that in the slightest for he was more than confident in the capabilities of his own car which, even being over three years old, it still ran as well as it did the day he first took it out for a spin in the motorsports centre.

'Okay, you know what to do,' Kyosuke said as he walked up to his younger brother's car.

'Yep,' Seisuke said then, looking at Misa he whispered, 'Aniki, keep an eye on her for me, okay?'

'I will, don't worry,' Kyosuke replied repressing the urge to laugh at him for Kyosuke, together with Kizuna, Akito and Ryoko, had realised that if Seisuke wasn't in love with Misa, he was a hair away from it.

After the countdown, the first official race started and Kyosuke had the satisfaction of seeing his younger brother take off in first position.

'Wise move,' Kyosuke heard Masato say.

'Yes,' he agreed then, glancing at a very worried looking Misa, he said, 'this is the best that could happen.'

'Why is that?' she asked.

'Because if he's ahead, Seisuke will just block him all the way up,' Kyosuke replied.

'I don't think so,' Jiro said.

'You don't?' Kyosuke asked.

'Nope,' Jiro replied, 'Ozawa's speciality is the uphill attacks. He's an ace overtaking in his mountain pass…'

'Is he now?' Kyosuke asked.

'Yes,' Misa replied, 'my brother was also very good blocking attacks and Ozawa still managed to overtake him in Momiji Lane.'

'Wow,' Kyosuke said and then, he looked ahead to see his brother and Ichiro disappear around the first corner of the pass. Suddenly Kyosuke felt a lot more worried than he usually was and this new piece of information made him run to his car so he could tell Seisuke about it.

'I know Aniki,' Seisuke said over the radio, 'he's already tried to pass me twice in three corners.'

'Okay, I want you to stop looking at the rear view mirror,' Kyosuke said suddenly remembering something his father had told them once about some battle where Akito's father had raced a professional racer.

'Got it,' Seisuke said and Kyosuke was pleased to see that, once again, his younger brother always obeyed his direct orders, no questions asked.

Following his older brother's advice was a lot harder than it sounded though for he was constantly tempted to see how much of a gap he still had but, using every bit of his determination he kept his eyes firmly on the road ahead of him and it soon became obvious the two main advantages this particular technique had: by not looking at the rear view mirror he could have all of his attention focused on one single point while he no longer felt the angst which seeing a car glued to the rear bumper could make him feel.

They had just driven half of the way through the summit when Seisuke heard the screeching noise typical of when a car went off course and had to brake very suddenly. This made him look at the rear view mirror and then he saw something which made him stop too.

'Shit,' he muttered as he jumped out of the RZ-1, not before grabbing the trusty first aid bag he always carried in his car and, as he approached the dark red Honda a very shaken Ichiro looked at Seisuke and pointing at the guy who he'd just ran over, he practically begged:

'Please tell me he isn't dead.'

_To be continued…_


	34. Chapter Thirty Three

**Programmed Lives – Fifth Stage**

_Chapter Thirty Three_

Ignoring the anxious look Ichiro was giving him and pushing aside the few people who were beginning to gather there, some of them just out of curiosity, Seisuke made his way to the guy who was lying on the ground, a teenager much younger than Akito who was apparently unconscious.

Setting aside his bag, he put his right hand underneath the boy's head and as he checked that there were no obvious injures there, he went to search for the teenager's pulse placing the index and middle fingers of his left hand under the boy's jaw, finding it almost immediately and therefore confirming that the teenager was very much alive.

'Hey,' Seisuke said, 'can you hear me?'

The boy let out a whimper as he slowly opened his eyes.

'What's your name?' Seisuke asked.

'Daiya,' he muttered and with that Seisuke ruled out any memory loss due to the impact.

'Can you tell me where it hurts?' Seisuke asked and the boy pointed at one of his legs. Seisuke removed his own jumper and put it under Daiya's head as he went to his bag to get a pair of scissors which he used to cut up the leg of the trousers.

There he saw the tale-telling signs of a fracture.

'He's got a broken leg,' Seisuke said, 'they'll need to x-ray him to know how bad it is but, overall, I'd say he's okay.'

'Y-you seem to know what you're doing,' Ichiro said, still speaking with a very shaky voice.

Seisuke looked at him briefly before going back to his first aid kit to get what he needed to immobilise the limb, only then, he said:

'I'm a third year medical student.'

'Ah,' Ichiro said, 'I see.'

'What happened?' Seisuke asked as he busied himself with Daiya's leg.

'It's my fault,' some other boy from the crowd said, 'we were messing around and I pushed him into the road as you two were driving up.'

'He just jumped in front of my car, I tried to dodge him but…' Ichiro explained, 'I can't keep doing this,' he muttered as he passed a hand over his face.

'Hey,' Seisuke said, 'it's not your fault, these people here should know how to behave during a battle,' he added letting everyone know how very disappointed he was in them.

'I…'

'Ichiro, is your car okay?' Seisuke asked.

'I think so,' Ichiro replied.

'Okay, help me get him in it,' Seisuke ordered then, he asked, 'where's the nearest hospital?

'Downhill, you've probably passed it as you came here,' Ichiro replied as he and Seisuke got Daiya into the dark red Honda which, Seisuke noticed, had a huge dent on its bonnet, probably where the kid had hit it with his own body.

'I'll go and get my car,' Seisuke said to Ichiro then, talking to the boy from the crowd, he asked, 'you're his friend, aren't you?' seeing the boy nod to that, he added, 'right, come with me.'

With that the two of them walked to the white RZ-1 while Seisuke hoped that his older brother had remained in his car so he could tell him what had happened.

'I'm really sorry,' the boy said as he tried to strap himself onto the passenger's seat.

'Be quiet,' Seisuke ordered, 'I'm trying to speak to my team leader,' he added then, he said, 'Aniki, are you still there?'

'Yes Seisuke, what's happened?'

'Some stupid boy jumped in front of Ichiro's car and has a broken leg, we're taking him and his friend to the hospital,' Seisuke explained, 'please, make sure Misa knows that this was truly an accident and that Ichiro could really do nothing to prevent it.'

'I'll tell her everything myself,' Kyosuke said, 'should we cancel the rest of the races?'

'No,' Seisuke replied, 'I know Akito's dying to see if he's back in shape.'

'Alright,' Kyosuke said, 'call me if you have problems, okay?'

'Sure,' Seisuke said then, he started his car's engine and, turning round, he started driving behind Ichiro's NSX bypassing the parking area where he saw his brother talking to Misa and Jiro, probably explaining to them what had just happened.

He then followed the Honda along the lakeside road for about ten minutes until Ichiro turned left driving up a narrow lane which led to a small white building with an H sign on top of it. They parked their cars just outside what looked like the E.R. entrance and, climbing out of the RZ-1, both Seisuke and Daiya's friend made their way to Ichiro's car.

'Hey,' Seisuke said as he helped the older guy get the boy out of the Honda, 'is this the hospital where…'

'Yes,' Ichiro replied, 'this is where we took him.'

'Ah,' Seisuke said then, deciding to remain in silence, they helped Daiya into the building where, finally, they got some medical attention.

Twenty minutes later, Daiya's friend thanked them several times and assured them that he had everything under control and that if they could please leave before Daiya's parents would get there. Seisuke smiled suspecting that Daiya had probably gone to watch the races without his parents' permission and, of course, if said parents saw two racing cars parked outside the hospital they would get a little more than suspicious.

'Hey,' Seisuke said as he was about to climb back into his Mazda, 'it really wasn't your fault.'

'It doesn't help,' Ichiro said, 'it never does.'

'Ichiro,' Seisuke insisted, 'it has to help. There are things which are beyond our control and blaming ourselves for them it's useless. Misa's brother died because of his own stupidity: every racer knows that driving while you're upset it's idiotic.'

'I know that…'

'It's the same with those two boys,' Seisuke added, 'they really should have known better than to play around while we were racing. This will probably teach them a very important lesson.'

'Yeah, I guess so,' Ichiro said.

'Besides,' Seisuke continued, 'we haven't finished our race so, don't even think about quitting because you owe me a race.'

'Oh god, not you too,' Ichiro complained but, seeing Seisuke's boyish grin on his face made him smile too.

'Come on,' Seisuke said, 'let's go back, I'd hate to miss Akito's face when we tell him Ryoko's a racer now.'

Ten minutes after that, Seisuke and Ichiro arrived just in time to see Akito crossing the finish line in first position, no news there for the younger of the Takahashi brothers knew that with Akito being back in shape, it would take someone like Keiichi Tsuchiya or one of the two older Fujiwaras to beat him.

'Well done mate!' Seisuke said patting Akito's shoulder.

'Thanks,' Akito said and his smile grew wider when he saw Ryoko walking towards him, thankfully, looking very much alright.

'You've won too!' Ryoko said giving him a well deserved victory kiss.

'Too?' he asked her confusedly.

'Yep,' Ryoko replied, 'didn't you hear? I won my first race.'

Seisuke had never laughed harder than that evening when Akito's completely flabbergasted expression made everyone burst out laughing. Even Ichiro seemed to forget about the boy with the broken leg as he and Atsuko joined in the general mirth.

'Baby,' Akito asked eyeing his girlfriend worriedly, 'are you going to become a street racer too?'

Ryoko looked at him as though as she was considering her answer while enjoying herself enormously as she watched Akito get increasingly worried.

'Nah,' she finally replied, 'I'll leave that to you guys.'

'Thank you,' Akito said looking obviously relieved.

'But,' Ryoko added, 'this doesn't mean that I won't take my car for a spin from time to time…'

Seisuke and Kyosuke re-started laughing seeing Akito almost on the verge of crying then, cruelly enough, Ryoko just kissed him and, smiling at him sweetly, she said:

'Now you know how I feel.'

With that, she left to go and join Misa so she could chat with the older girl.

'She's too mean,' Akito complained as he looked at his two friends seeking their support and understanding.

'Sorry mate,' Seisuke said putting his hand on Akito's shoulder, 'you've been together for almost four years and I always say that the warranty expires after two.'

'Yes,' Kyosuke confirmed, 'tough luck, my friend.'

'Thanks, you two,' Akito said miserably.

They witnessed as Kyosuke and Kizuna claimed the victory in their respective races too and, after a few hours, the Golden Arrows drove back home with their undefeated record still intact. Even the Tochigi Thunders, who were following them back into Gunma on their way to their prefecture, had won their races.

'We're still the best,' Junya said over the radio as they crossed the border which separated Saitama from Gunma then, noticing that Shinji had opened the private frequency the two best friends used to talk, he said, 'what's up Shinji?'

'Listen,' the younger guy said, 'is Seisuke-san going out with Misa-chan?'

Junya let out a chuckle and said:

'Shinji, I swear, if you were any slower your brain would stall.'

With that poor Shinji decided to remain quiet until they all went separate ways to drive to their respective homes then, as usual, the three Mazda, the Nissan and the Toyota drove along the road which led to the Takahashi residence. This time though, they had another car following them: Misa's red V37.

'Are you sure it's okay for me to…' Misa asked Seisuke as all six of them climbed out of their cars.

'Yeah, don't worry, my parents' are used to it,' Seisuke replied, realising only a split second too late what he'd just implied, 'I mean that they're very open minded,' he added, not really fixing his mistake either.

'What he's trying to say,' Kyosuke said, 'it's that our parents are used to us bringing guests without telling them first.'

'Ah,' Misa said, 'okay then…'

Soon after that, the three Takahashi, with Kizuna, Misa and Akito found themselves in the huge living room and despite the fact that it was past three o'clock in the morning, they were still way too awake to go to bed so, instead, they decided to watch TV and chat for a while.

'You know,' Ryoko said to Akito as they snuggled together in her bed, 'back there it reminded me of when we used to get together with Kaori and it was the six of us watching TV.'

'Only that instead of Kaori we now have Misa,' Akito pointed out.

'Yes,' Ryoko said, 'I actually like her better than Kaori. She's a lot more fun and she really cares about Seisuke.'

'Ryoko,' Akito started, 'is it true that you now like racing?'

'Oh,' Ryoko said as she yawned, 'I'm so sleepy.'

Akito shook his head on the pillow and, seeing that he wasn't going to get a straight answer from her, he decided to drop the subject and enjoyed sleeping with the girl who had owned his heart since forever.

A week later, Akito parked his car at the motorsports centre where he found that everyone from the still nameless team was already there looking very happy about something.

'Akito!' Kyosuke said seeing his friend walking towards them, 'we've finally got them!'

'What?' Akito asked.

'The cars, you silly,' Kyosuke replied, 'they arrived this morning!'

'Really? I want to see them!' Akito exclaimed getting suddenly very excited.

'Hiroki's already testing one of them,' Kyosuke explained.

'Really?' Akito asked and his enthusiasm was quickly turning into that weird sensation he always felt when it came to Hiroki.

'Yeah, so hurry up and get changed,' Kyosuke said.

'Hey, I can't drive yet, can I?'

'Of course you can,' they then heard Ryosuke say making Akito turn sharply to look at the aging face of his best friends' father.

'Really?' Akito repeated.

'Sure,' Ryosuke repeated, 'I got the results from the last tests and your shoulder should now be fully healed. Just be careful with it.'

'I will, sir,' Akito said as he started running towards the garage, stopping half way through to turn round and say, 'thank you, sir.'

Both father and son exchanged an amused look as Kyosuke said:

'He'll never change.'

'Let's hope he doesn't,' Ryosuke said for he really liked the way Takumi's kid had grown up into a very caring young man who seemed to enjoy just the fact of being alive.

Not even ten minutes later, Akito walked out of the garage wearing his racing suit and, as he put on his helmet, he started getting the adrenaline rush he had missed so badly then, sitting back into the Dallara's cockpit, he let Fumihiro strap him onto the seat as Kenta clipped the steering wheel on.

'Do you copy?' Akito heard Keisuke's voice through the built-in radio the helmet came equipped with.

'Loud and clear,' Akito replied as he felt rather than heard the engine being started then, taking a deep breath, he pressed the clutch and using the selector under the steering wheel, he entered the first gear. He then released the clutch as he slowly pressed the gas and soon enough, he was rolling the car out of the boxes and into the track where, watching carefully to see that Hiroki's car was nowhere near there, he started shifting the gears up as his car picked up speed.

'How does it feel?' he heard Keisuke's voice over the radio.

'Great, so far,' Akito replied as he turned into the first corner.

'Good, try to see if you can catch up with Hiroki,' Keisuke challenged him.

'Consider it done,' Akito said and, with that, he started getting seriously concentrated on his driving as he delighted himself with the fact of being back into his element, three long months after he'd thought his racing days were over.

Since Akito knew the Takahashi's circuit like the back of his hand, having himself helped in its re-design which had taken place a few years before, he could focus entirely on the way the car reacted to everything he did and, as he went lap after lap, he started compiling a list of things that needed to be changed and things that were fine the way they were.

This car was great though and Akito knew that, with a bit of luck, he and Hiroki could do really well in the races. If only Hiroki became a bit more cooperative though for the guy still refused to behave like if he was part of a team, making everyone feel very worried about it.

Finally, and as he entered the tenth lap, Akito saw Hiroki's car in the distance.

'You're mine,' he muttered to himself and, with the throttle wide open, he started doing what he had done in numerous races: catching up with the enemy by stealing centimetre after centimetre.

By the thirteenth lap, Akito's front wing was kissing Hiroki's twin exhaust and, half a lap after that, Akito tried his first attack and, maybe because Hiroki wasn't expecting it or maybe because Akito was just this good, he managed to overtake him fairly easily, confirming Ryoko's theory that he could really beat his new team mate anytime he wanted.

Akito drove away putting as much distance as he could then, he saw that something was wrong with the car as it slowed down quite dramatically and, realising what it was made him smile: he was running out of fuel.

He was about to park his car on the grass so he could inform Keisuke about that when he saw Hiroki's car aiming straight for Akito's who, seeing that, forced the last drops of petrol into the engine so he would move it forward and out of Hiroki's way who, predictably enough, just drove himself out of the track and into the gravel.

It took Akito quite a lot of nerve to make sure he could unfasten the racing seatbelt which tied him to his car and, as he climbed out of it, he ran towards watching as Hiroki climbed out of his car and was removed his helmet with the same tranquillity as if he'd just finished driving for the day.

'Are you freaking retarded?' Akito shouted as he snatched his helmet off his head, 'you could have crashed your car against mine!'

'So?' Hiroki asked.

'It's a really expensive machine, you stupid moron!' Akito exclaimed grabbing the front of Hiroki's racing suit, 'not a toy for you to play with!' he added.

'It's not like you're paying for it,' Hiroki had the guts to say.

'Actually,' Akito said, 'I am paying for it and I'm paying for your salary too so you better start respecting me a bit more, okay?'

'Whatever,' Hiroki said looking at him so detachedly that something got loose in Akito's mind and, before he could help himself, he released Hiroki's suit then, curling that same hand into a fist, he hit Hiroki's jaw using every ounce of the anger and frustration the guy had made him feel in the past month or so. The punch sent Hiroki to the gravel and Akito was preparing himself for the fight of his life when he heard Keisuke shout his name.

Turning round he saw with horror that his future father in law was running towards him followed by the rest of the team who, obviously enough, had witnessed the whole exchange, including the not-so-glorious moment when Akito had punched his team mate on his face.

'What do you think you're doing?' Akito heard his own father ask.

'You saw him!' Akito shouted, 'he wanted to crash against me!'

'It's not my fault you've lost your nerve after the accident,' Hiroki said getting back up.

'Shut the hell up,' Akito shouted feeling completely out of himself.

'Hey,' Hiroki started, 'just because you're paying my salary doesn't mean you can order me around.'

'Akito's not paying your salary,' Keisuke said, 'but…'

'What?' Akito asked in shock.

'Akito,' Keisuke started, 'you don't seriously think we're using the money you've given us, do you?'

'What?' Akito repeated as his anger turned into astonishment then, hearing Hiroki's chuckle, he began to feel more and more ashamed of himself and, without saying anything else, he dropped his helmet on the ground as he started running towards his car.

He climbed into the V-86 feeling a couple of tears burning his eyes and wiping them furiously, he started the Toyota's engine and drove to the only place he knew no one would ever find him.

_To be continued…_


	35. Chapter Thirty Four

**Programmed Lives – Fifth Stage**

_Chapter Thirty Four_

It was rather late in the evening when the two RZ-1s were parked side by side by their owners: the Takahashi brothers.

'Any luck?' Kyosuke asked to his younger brother looking at him over the roof of his yellow Mazda.

'Nope,' Seisuke replied as he too got out of his car.

'Kosugi's asked the Thunders to keep their eyes open, maybe one of them will see him,' Misa said as she too climbed out of her V37.

'We should go in,' Kizuna suggested, 'maybe he's come back while we were gone.'

Unfortunately, the half-American girl was wrong because the minute they stepped into the common room of the centre's main building, they saw Keisuke and Takumi walking up to them with a very anxious expression on their faces.

'I take you didn't find him,' Takumi said.

'No, sorry,' Kyosuke replied, 'I've got every one the Arrows looking for him and they're to call me should they run into him.'

'Uncle Keisuke, have you called home? Maybe Ryoko knows where he is,' Seisuke suggested, trying his best to be useful.

'I've already done that,' Keisuke said, 'and she's on her way here.'

'Oh,' Seisuke gasped then, finally noticing that Hiroki was also there sitting with his father on one of the room's sofas, he added, 'I think you two should go home.'

'No,' Tohru said, 'he needs to face the consequences of his mistakes.'

'Dad…'

'Shut up,' Tohru barked, 'I thought I had brought you up much better than that.'

'Dad…'

'I told you to shut up,' Tohru exclaimed as he got up from the sofa, turning to face his son, 'I am disgusted to see the way you've repaid Fujiwara's son for the huge favour he's done to you.'

'Dad, please…' Hiroki said as he got up from the sofa.

Raising his hand, Tohru slapped his son on his face, sending him back onto the sofa.

'I don't think you deserve any of this!' Tohru shouted, 'just because you've got the talent I didn't have that doesn't give you the right to behave like the sort of spoilt little brat I used to hate so much when I was your age!'

'Hey,' Takumi started, finally deciding that someone needed to intervene, 'Suetsugu, this isn't helping us finding my son.'

Tohru looked at Takumi as if he'd suddenly realised that there were six other people in the room.

'I'm sorry,' Tohru said, 'for this and for everything my son's done to yours.'

'Suetsugu-san,' Kyosuke started, 'Akito's a lot tougher than that, he's probably just upset for having lost it the way he did.'

'I actually think that he's upset for what I said about his money,' Keisuke commented and was about say something else but, seeing his daughter entering the room, he said, 'baby…'

'Where is he?' Ryoko asked, looking and sounding so angry that she didn't even bother to acknowledge her father.

'We're still looking for him,' Seisuke started saying but soon it became clear that Ryoko wasn't talking about her boyfriend for she walked very resolutely towards Hiroki who was still covering his bruised cheek with his left hand.

'Here you are!' Ryoko shouted as she grabbed Hiroki by the front of his shirt, forcing him to stand up then, with her voice trembling out of rage, she said, 'listen carefully for I will only say it once: if anything happens to Akito because of you, you better run and hide because if I find you, the biggest bit they'll find of you will fit inside a matchbox, am I clear?'

Hiroki stared at the much shorter girl feeling a lot more terrified than when his own father had been telling him off earlier on. then, before he had the time to say anything, Ryoko pushed him back onto the sofa and, letting out a furious huff, she walked to her father and said:

'Where have you looked for him so far?'

'Everywhere we could think of,' Keisuke replied and, knowing better than to try to calm her down, for he would only make things worse, he asked, 'do you have any ideas?'

'Actually, I think I do,' Ryoko said then, turning to face Akito's father, she added, 'Takumi-san, does Akito have a copy of the key to the house in Tokyo?'

'What hou…,' Takumi started saying then, realising what Ryoko was talking about made him get very serious as he nodded, 'yes, I think he does.'

'Then I think that's where he is,' Ryoko said.

'What makes you think that?' Kyosuke asked.

'He was always talking about going to check it out one of these days,' Ryoko explained then, looking at Takumi, she added, 'and let's face it, he probably thinks it's the last place we would think of going.'

'You're right,' Takumi said.

'Okay, let's go then,' Ryoko said and, before anyone could even say anything, she walked back out of the room.

'I'll go with her,' Takumi said, 'you better stay in here in case he's not there either.'

'Okay,' Keisuke replied and, with that, Takumi followed his son's girlfriend out of the room.

'Phew,' they all heard Hiroki say, 'what a girl.'

'You have no idea,' Kyosuke said.

'You better pray that she finds him in one piece because if she doesn't, she'll really do what she said,' Seisuke said making Hiroki even more scared.

Meanwhile, Takumi and Ryoko climbed into the ancient AE86 with the two of them not exchanging a single word as Takumi drove his car out of the centre and into the motorway that went to Tokyo and, the closer they got to the country's capital, the more Takumi found himself dreading the moment he would see that house again.

A short hour later he saw it, looking as majestic as it had done the first time he'd seen it over twenty two years ago when, after that first date organised by Keisuke and Kyoko, he'd driven Minami back to her place.

'It's been a very long time,' he muttered almost to himself.

'You moved out of there after Akito was born, didn't you?' Ryoko asked as she waited for Takumi to stop his car.

'Yeah,' Takumi replied with such an odd tone of voice that not even himself recognised it.

'Let's see if he's in here,' Ryoko said climbing out the car the minute Takumi had parked it in front of the huge gate.

Takumi followed Keisuke's daughter suddenly feeling very reluctant to re-enter the house where he'd lived what had probably been the happiest years of his life but, fuelling his determination by telling himself that he needed to find his son, Takumi soon took the lead as he pushed the small door which was next to the gate finding it open.

'He's here,' he said.

'I knew it,' Ryoko added.

They then walked all the way up the wide lane towards the house's portal with Ryoko gasping every now and then, probably impressed with the grandeur of the whole place.

'It's a very nice house,' Ryoko finally said as they walked up the steps which led to the front door.

'It is,' Takumi agreed, 'a tad too big for my taste but Minami and her mother loved it.'

Ryoko glanced at her boyfriend's father for a short while noticing that he had a slightly strained expression on his face. This made her decide to stop making comments on the house for Akito's dad seemed to be troubled about re-visiting the house he'd shared with Akito's biological mother.

Thankfully the front door was also unlocked so they just pushed it open and, as they stepped into the house, Ryoko noticed the huge amount of dust and the strong smell of humidity which were very clear signs that no one had been in this house after Takumi and his son had moved out of it, eighteen years ago.

As they busied themselves looking for Akito in every one of the multiple rooms of the house, Ryoko realised for the first time in her life that if Akito's mother hadn't died, she would have probably known Akito for even longer than she did now. Again, if Akito's mother hadn't died, so many things would have been so extremely different that maybe she and Akito would have never got together so, all and all, Ryoko decided that things were probably better the way they were.

Takumi opened the door which he knew led to the house's huge living room and, as he did so, he saw that Akito had removed the sheet of linen which covered the sofa and was sitting there, giving his back to them as he stared at the mantelpiece.

'Akito,' Takumi whispered.

'What do you want?' Akito asked without turning round.

'We want you,' Ryoko replied and, hearing her voice made Akito spring up from the sofa.

'Ryoko,' he said, 'what are you doing here?'

'It was her idea to come and look for you here,' Takumi explained.

'Baby,' Ryoko said as she walked towards her boyfriend, 'everyone's been so worried.'

That made Akito let out a dry chuckle.

'It's true son,' Takumi said, 'we've all been looking for you everywhere.'

'Will you ever stop treating me like a kid?' Akito exclaimed as he glared at his father.

'Son, I…'

'How do you think it makes me feel when I see that you guys never take me seriously?' Akito asked with all the hurt he felt showing through both his face and his voice.

'We do take you seriously,' Takumi said.

'HA!' Akito exclaimed, 'like this morning, right? How much fun you and Keisuke-san must have had with me thinking I was fuck knows what, planning everything so carefully and giving you my dead mother's money so we could set the team up.'

'Akito…' Ryoko said feeling extremely upset as she saw her boyfriend crying for the first time in her life.

'That's all our fault,' Takumi said, 'Ryosuke, Keisuke and I decided to test all of you guys to see if you were ready to cope by yourselves, for the day we won't be around to show you the way.'

'What are you talking about?' Akito asked as he wiped the two tears which had escaped his control.

'Ryosuke thought that we needed to see if you could manage by yourselves and set up some tests to see what you'd do. To Kyosuke and Kizuna we asked them to come up with a complete set of procedures for the technical staff and the crew of mechanics. Seisuke was asked to draw up an entire health programme for our two drivers while we hoped you would help us to improve the team by providing us with some extra ideas.'

'I probably failed, didn't I?' Akito asked sounding even more depressed.

'No,' Takumi said, 'on the contrary, you were the one who performed the best out of the four. You didn't only improve the team: you presented us with a report that was almost identical to the one Ryosuke and Fumihiro had prepared for us, both suggesting that we should aim for the GP2. I don't need to tell you how very impressed we all were.'

'But if you didn't have any intentions of using my real mother's money, why did you tell me about it?' Akito asked.

'Because I saw that for the kind of plans you had you would need a lot of money and it was the only thing I could think of,' Takumi replied, 'son, what else could I do? I'm not as smart as you are.'

'That's not true,' Akito said, 'I had to take my wit after someone, didn't I?'

'Yes, you got it all from your mother, believe me,' Takumi replied then, looking at the sofa, he suddenly remembered something that had happened right there, 'Akito, do you know that I was sitting on that sofa the day your mother told me she was pregnant with you?'

'Really?' Akito asked.

'Yes…'

'Er, guys…' Ryoko said hating herself for interrupting such an intimate moment, 'we should call my father to let him know we've found you.'

'Oh shit,' Akito said getting all depressed again.

'What?'

'Do I really have to see Hiroki again?' Akito asked.

'Son,' Takumi started, 'after the way his father and your girlfriend have dressed him down, I should think he's probably considering a complete attitude makeover.'

'You told him off?' Akito asked to his girlfriend lifting his eyebrows up in shock.

'Yes, and he deserved a lot more than what I did!' Ryoko replied, feeling all the anger at her boyfriend's team mate coming back to her.

'Geez,' Akito said, 'I almost feel sorry for the guy.'

'Akito, I know that, right now, Hiroki's probably not your favourite person,' Takumi said knowing that this was the understatement of the century, 'but, why don't you think of it this way: with him in the team, you'll have to keep training yourself very hard to make sure you're always one step ahead of him…'

'Yes,' Ryoko added, 'you could use him as some sort of incentive to improve yourself.'

Akito seemed to consider the issue for a bit then, nodding once, he said:

'You two are right: if he wants to play, we'll play but we'll do it my way.'

Ryoko laughed at that and, exchanging an amused look with Akito's father, she said:

'Hiroki won't know what's hit him.'

An hour later and after having locked Minami's house up with the solemn promise to come back to it soon to clean it up, Akito parked his V-86 at the centre's car park and, as he and Ryoko climbed out of it, they saw Akito's grandfather rushing towards them.

'Here you are!' the old man said.

'Sorry Grandpa I…' Akito started.

'Who's talking to you?' Bunta asked looking truly perplexed then, before Akito could reply, Bunta said, 'I've been waiting for you to bring the AE86 back…'

'Why?' Takumi asked his father.

'Because that Keisuke brat told me about what happened with Akito's team mate and I've had an idea.'

'Dad,' Takumi started, looking positively freaked out, 'what do you want to do?'

'Oh, nothing, I'll just take that boy for a spin.'

'Grandpa,' Akito said, biting his lower lip, 'I don't think that is such a good idea.'

'Why not?' Bunta said, 'didn't you say that he doesn't seem to respond to anything?'

'Yes, but…'

'That's because he hasn't had the right kind of motivation,' Bunta said and then, snatching the AE86's key from his son's hand, he climbed into it and before anyone could do anything, he drove off towards the track.

'Oh shit,' Akito said as he, Takumi and Ryoko started running after the Toyota, hoping that they could make it in time to save Akito's team mate. Unfortunately, they were too late and by the time they made it to the track, they heard Bunta ordering Hiroki to get in the car.

'Do something,' Keisuke asked Takumi.

'Sorry, I can't,' Takumi replied, 'it's too late.'

'What's he going to do?' Tohru asked to the two other men.

'Er…' Takumi started but then they all saw as Fujiwara Bunta took the ancient AE86 around the circuit drifting in a way that no one, not even Takumi himself, would have said that the thirty four years old car was driven by a seventy one year old man.

By the time the AE86 finally came to a stop, Bunta got out of the car smoking the cigarette he'd probably lit up while drifting, Hiroki, on the other hand and after somehow managing to climb out of the car, he threw himself onto the ground, literally kissing it.

'Hey, are you alright?' Akito asked him.

'No, no…I…' Hiroki stuttered so badly that he found himself unable to form a coherent sentence.

'It's okay, it's happened to us all,' Keisuke said.

'Son, what's wrong?' Tohru asked.

'He's…argh…' Hiroki started and, before he could help himself, he started being sick right there at the edge of the track.

'Geez,' Bunta complained, 'youngsters these days can't cope with anything. And you call yourself a racer?'

'Dad,' Takumi said, 'shouldn't you go home? It's getting late.'

'Yes, I've got work to finish,' Bunta said then, tousling his grandson's hair, he asked, 'you're okay?'

'Yes, now I am,' Akito replied.

'Good, come and see me one of these days, okay?'

'I will,' Akito said and, with that, he saw his father walking his old man to the more or less equally ancient Subaru GC8 then after he had climbed into it, they all saw Bunta taking off so fast that it made Takumi stumble.

'I swear,' Kyosuke said talking to Akito, 'I don't know what your grandfather will do the day he won't be able to renew his driving license.'

Akito laughed at his friend and said:

'Do you really think that'll stop him from driving like a madman?'

Everybody shook their heads because they knew that the only way Bunta Fujiwara would ever stop driving would be if he died and, again, everyone agreed that the later that happened all the better for life would be simply too boring without that 'shitty old man'.

_To be concluded…_


	36. Epilogue

**Programmed Lives – Fifth Stage**

_Epilogue_

Spring 2025

Needless to say, after Bunta had taken Hiroki for one of his 'spins', the guy seemed to do a one hundred and eighty degrees personality change and there wasn't anyone more willing to help and more eager to do his best for the Takawara Racing Team than Hiroki Suetsugu.

'Do you ever get used to this?' Hiroki asked as he and Akito were finally allowed to leave the press room of the Albert Lake Park circuit in Melbourne, Australia.

'Not really,' Akito replied, 'good news is that if we keep doing this well, the journalists will have to be nice to us.'

'I hope so,' Hiroki said and Akito was going to say something when he saw his girlfriend Ryoko running towards them.

'Come on guys,' she said, 'my father's waiting for you two.'

'Why?' Akito asked feeling just a hint of the old terror he used to feel for his future father in law.

'It's a surprise,' Ryoko said and, as Akito took her hand so he and Hiroki could walk back into the team's boxes, he muttered:

'I hate surprises.'

Ryoko just laughed at that while she thought that her boyfriend was going to like this particular one and she was right for the minute they stepped into the boxes, from the paddock side of them, Akito saw that there were quite a lot more people in the garage than when he'd left for the press conference and that quite a few of them weren't members of his team.

'Uncle Itsuki!' the now nineteen years old exclaimed as he saw all three ex-Lonely Drivers with their families there, 'what are you all doing here?'

'You didn't think we'd miss this, did you?' Iketani asked instead.

'No way on earth,' Kenji added shaking his head vigorously.

'It's your welcome back race and we all wanted to be here to give you our support,' Itsuki explained.

'Thanks guys,' Akito said and he had quite a lot of trouble hiding the fact that he'd been more than moved by the presence of so many people who had been taking care of him ever since he was born.

'Come on Akito,' he then heard his father say, 'you've got to get ready.'

'Yes,' Akito said, 'guys, I'll do my best!'

'We know you will honey,' Mariko, Itsuki's gorgeous and very tall wife said placing her hand on Akito's cheek. He then nodded at the woman who'd been his biological mother's best friend and, with that, he joined Hiroki in what was going to become the traditional pre-race pep talk from both their team managers: Takahashi Keisuke and Fujiwara Takumi.

A few minutes later and with all their guests having gone to the VIP grandstand to watch the race from there, Akito and Hiroki climbed into their cars with Kizuna issuing a few last second instructions to Hiroki and with Kyosuke doing the same for Akito:

'We've changed the settings the way you asked us,' he said, 'if everything goes as it should, you will do your pit stop half way through the race.'

'Okay,' Akito said through the open helmet.

'Go and make me proud,' Kyosuke said and Akito couldn't help but to smile for the Golden Arrows leader and engineer in charge of his car would never ever change.

Soon the two white, black and yellow cars were rolling down the pit lane and a few moments later, Akito and Hiroki placed their cars in P1 and P2, just ahead of one of the black and white cars from the PIAA-Tanaka team. That car was driven by the English youth Tanaka-san had hired to replace Akito together with Kawamura Naoki who had joined the PIAA-Tanaka Team to fill in the gap left by Akito's ex-team mate Fernandez Ruben since starting this year, the Spaniard had moved on to an IRL team in the US. Pushing that happy thought aside, Akito started getting ready for what was going to be the debut race of the Takawara Racing Team.

'Son,' he heard Takumi's voice say through the radio.

'Yes Dad, what's up?'

'Nothing, just wanted to tell you how very proud I am of you…'

'Dad,' Akito said, 'you're not supposed to be proud of me. Don't you remember what Grandpa always says?'

Takumi just laughed at that and, just before the warm up lap started, Akito could have sworn that his father had called him 'smartass'. That made him drive the entire lap with a smile on his face, almost forgetting to do the zig-zagging which would allow for the tyres' temperature to reach an optimal level.

Then, a few seconds later, all twenty six GP2 cars were off.

Akito liked this circuit's long straight and that first series of turns which led to a very wide, high speed corner which made him feel all the lateral G-forces he had liked so much when, as a very small child, he'd first driven a kart. The Albert Lake street circuit was definitely a thrilling track and Akito felt very grateful that he was actually getting paid to drive around it.

'Akito,' he heard Kyosuke's voice say, 'take it easy man, you're making Hiroki look bad.'

He felt his smile come back for, as Kyosuke had probably predicted, instead of slowing down, Akito only increased his speed and by the time he was called in for his first and only pit stop Akito's advantage on his own team mate was such that he entered the pit lane, refuelled and changed the tyres and got back onto the track without having lost his first position.

'He's going for it,' Keisuke commented to his long time friend and former team mate.

'Yes, I'm afraid so,' Takumi said shrugging his shoulders.

The two older men were right and, twenty two laps later, Akito crossed the finish line in first position having to wait for over fifteen seconds until they saw the second of the Takawara Racing Team cars take the flag.

Then, after a brief prize ceremony, both Japanese drivers walked back to their boxes so they could celebrate the one-two finish in their first race ever. Quite an accomplishment but, again, Keisuke had always known that with a Fujiwara behind the wheel and another one at the pit lane's wall, this was just what had to happen.

He and Takumi smiled when they heard the exchange of their two drivers:

'Don't get used to this,' Hiroki said to Akito, 'the next race is mine.'

Akito laughed at that and said:

'Only in your dreams.'

This was going to be one hell of a season, Keisuke thought shaking his head.

_See you next stage..._


End file.
